God Eater: Infinity Paradise

52. Fake Paradise

There was no progress. No progress at all. The Den is moving at a really slow pace. Shio was safely retrieved and was back to normal, although, every time the reaction would occur again, the doctor would simply feed her to temporary satisfy her growing hunger. Soma had holed himself up in Yuka's room, and C didn't understand what the hell would he be doing with her, who had done nothing much but stare blankly at Aegis from the window of her room.

It had been pretty quiet since she left the Outer Ghetto, and she's somewhere in between nervous and relieved. The pale girl frowned again, stepping out of the elevator. She passed by Kota's locked door as she hummed, arriving before a familiar room. One hand behind her and feet on tippy-toes, C knocked.

"Coming!" A faint voice resonated from inside the room and it wasn't very long before the door slid open, revealing before the information broker the sight of a certain Russian God Eater. Surprisingly, Alisa wasn't in any of her flashy clothes. Instead, she was dressed in a comfortable-looking white tee shirt with a sunflower print on the bottom right corner, matching with a pair of denim shorts. Her silver hair was hiked up to a side ponytail. "C..." She sounded rather perturbed at the presence of the guest before her. "Can I... help you?"

The information broker invited herself in. "Yeah. Well, you could make me something to eat." One quick look around and she found a few other girls present in the room, staring at her in surprise. They were all dressed rather casually, some even holding onto cooking utensils. "Did I come at a wrong time?"

"No, not really." It was Sakuya who first recovered from the shock. She was wearing a white camisole which contrasted the unzipped black shirt over it, which surely was a property of their late unit leader. Lindow's shirt had its sleeves rolled up near the sniper's elbow, and it was long enough to nearly cover the shorts she was wearing. "We just decided that with so much stressful events going on, we could use some break and spend time for ourselves."

Kanon was just tying the knot of her pastel yellow apron. She was wearing an oversized green shirt and black leggings, a ladle in her hand. "We're starting off the R&R by teaching Alisa how to cook." When Alisa coughed into her hands from the words she had just said, it was the reckless medic that rolled her eyes with a small teasing smile. "Properly, that is."

"No!" The pale girl cried out, uncharacteristically dramatic. "Are you all mad?!"

"Stop the over-dramatization," Licca shrugged, sighing at the reaction of the informant who had collapsed on the floor. The mechanic was still dressed in her grey tank top, though had ditched her baggy pants for a pair of trousers. "Alisa wants to learn how to cook properly."

"I can cook properly," the Russian declared, arms crossed over her chest. "In fact, when I made C and sestra some pirozhki, they said it was vkusno—delicious."

"Still, it wouldn't be a very bad idea if we help, right?" Hibari asked from where she sat on the couch. The operator was wearing an orange shirt that was a little too loose to be hers (Tatsumi's, maybe?) and a pair of jeans that cut just below her knee. Kanon nodded in affirmation. "See? No harm done."

To show her disagreement to their decision, the pale girl decided to roll across the floor while crying out her complains. When she came to a stop, she was pumping her fists against the floor. "Then what am I supposed to eat?! She's talented! Gloriously talented! Don't take it away!"

"Don't make so much of a fuss like it's the end of the world," Licca said. "Why would you eat Alisa's cooking anyway?" Upon the raising of the question, both the silver-haired female and the pale girl displayed an affronted look.

Alisa huffed. "At least she likes my cooking! Even if it's only here. For your information, she comes to eat with me regularly."

Everyone else present in the room stared at C, who stared back at them with a pout. "You, you, you and you—" She pointed accusingly at the rest of the girls. "You're all jealous of perfection! None of you can achieve her godly level of culinary skill! So, now you plan to erase it—take it away! She's the Eighth Wonder of the Culinary World!"