Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Valley Quest ❯ Valley Quest: 7 ( Chapter 7 )

“Hey, did you know that boy is named Jurai? He said he has some relatives here,” asked Yuta the following morning. He was going to the market again to buy food for breakfast. Tripling your household numbers is exhausting. I was also buying groceries at the time, having just finished with the morning rush for coffee by the local farmers, my brother, Haruno who had been tased by my nephew, and Sofiya, who did a good impression of a chief executive officer for either a battlefield commander or a zaibatsu with evil intentions.

“Really? Well, he should probably head up to the Masaki shrine and introduce himself. That’s likely to cause a stir,” I suggested.

“Is your sister in law helping?” I asked, changing the subject.

“She cooked last night. It was very good. I slept better than I have in weeks. She said she’s thinking about opening a restaurant here,” he admitted.

“That might be a good idea. Should I funnel other chefs her direction if any show up?” I asked. He considered that, then nodded.

“Yeah, she can decide if she wants to hire them or not. Did someone buy that shop? There’s a sign going up. Kaguya Mochi? Oh, that’s a cute name,” he said, pointing as we exited the market with our shopping sacks full and heavy with fresh vegetables and meat. The sign had the traditional rabbit with a mochi pounding mallet.

“Nasa’s wife opened it. Apparently there aren’t enough astronomers to make selling telescopes pay all their bills, so she’s selling mochi she makes herself,” I explained what I knew.

“She’s a nice girl. Aren’t they the shyest couple you’ve ever seen?” Yuta commented. This was true.

“Hopefully she can get good sales. I am planning to buy some of her production for sale in my shop for farmers. You might see if your sister will buy from her too. Red bean and mochi soup is a very traditional dish popular with adults in this town.”

“It’s a good idea. I’ll mention it,” said Yuta, then bid me good day and turned towards his house.

“Mmgahbluh bluh,” said Yuki, waking up from his nap. Babies are certainly interesting. He kept trying to walk, nearly a year old now. He was much heavier than when he was born, and just about too big for the carrier I was using. He wanted to touch everything he saw.

When I returned home I put away my groceries and was recording the amounts in my accounting software when I got a buzzer. I checked the camera and saw it was the Major who ran Seize, Klaus. He’d married the nice blonde lady with the glasses who was in charge of the tankers with the trumpets. They’d been busy negotiating with Washu, mainly the pretty Nadesico with the bell pendant, trying to figure out a solution to their homeworld’s pollution problem, and shut down their grey goo. It was easy enough on this side and the contamination didn’t survive here, but over there, for some reason, it was preventing recovery of the battlefields so there were huge no man’s lands on that Earth. Washu didn’t work for free, but she liked scientific challenges and after several weeks came up with some crab robots which went through a portal back to their homeworld and started limited replication and broadcast of shutdown codes for all those nanites. The small pale soldier who fixed up their tank provided most of the data, and monitored the result. It would take decades or centuries before the damage was repaired on that planet. Their wars had been apocalyptic. Later versions of their spider tank even shot dark energy beam weapons which would destroy a city on impact from a single blast. And that had happened to their local Madrid. The energy bleedoff was especially destructive to life. But that wasn’t why Klaus was here. He wanted coffee. My coffee. Pounds of the roasted beans.

“I’m hosting a party, and need resupply for the girls. Building a new town, and a new fort here, they have lost some of their purpose. I only asked them to make this place for them so we wouldn’t lose another princess in battle for a pointless war. Its time for the dousing festival, and there’s always a feast then.”

“Are you getting Rio to be the maiden?” I asked. Rio, who I’d met shortly after they arrived, had managed to dodge an arranged marriage to their local Pope, of all things. The Pope lead the other side in their last war. With the disappearance of the town, and some messages left behind for her father the King, it was a mess I was glad wasn’t my problem. I was hosting the exiles and helping them deal with the local world. Rio’s deal with Washu would smooth things over on the other Earth. And hopefully Rio wouldn’t be marrying some Pope. Don’t they know priests don’t marry? Let it go.

“Yes, certainly. I can roast you 10 pounds of coffee, but I’ll need to get started. You’re welcome to wait,” I opened the shop and let him in. I began roasting beans in batches, my fan running. I do this job by hand, not by machine. People pay for the quality. After a good hour with chatting back and forth, I completed the last 2-pound paper sack. He said he’d grind them later so I priced appropriately. Klaus thanked me and I closed up shop again. It was mid afternoon. The day was very nice weather so I headed back upstairs and got Yuki into a stroller and we took a walk.

The triangle mouth girl was wandering around with a little friend, the policeman’s daughter. He’s only arrived a month earlier, so it was nice their little one had a friend. The triangle girl was playing her recorder, then would stop and talk about philosophy and the nature of being in the country or not.

“And now we have cellphone service, not just wifi,” she said proudly. “I wonder if Candy Store is open?” she asked. She turned down the correct road, headed north on her tottering legs. The kids here are unconsciously tough, not even realizing it. That shop was several miles away, but the kids just walked and would get there eventually. I heard the buzz of a motorcycle engine and Machi rolled past and slowed to a stop, offering a lift to the two kids. They climbed aboard on the lap of the bear and went on their way.