Jack scratched the back of his head as he saw the incomprehension on Taro’s face. If he really wanted to know if that bowl will help him in improving, then he needed to at least try it for a week. He certainly wasn’t looking forward to it, but he needed some way to train his “spirit”.
“Uh, you alright, man?” Jack asked Taro, who shook his head and just asked “Are you sure? Isn’t that what caused you to leave in such anger yesterday?” Jack’s face showed his surprise at the statement. “No, not at all. I just had to get to work as fast as I could. I was almost late, in fact.” Jack waved his hands in front of him upon seeing Taro’s self-loathing face and realizing the implications of his statement.
“Hold on, hold on! I didn’t mean that you made me late, just that, I really mismanaged my time.” He looked at the clock on the wall. 11:20 AM. “That’s why I’m here early today, so that I can eat it without being late to work.” Man, Taro really needs something to help with that self-esteem.
Taro’s face lightened up, and he seemed to be normal once more. “Ah, I understand. In that case, one large chicken with habanero seasoning. Completely free, of course.” “Now, you shouldn’t do that.” Jack stopped Taro once more before he could leave. “You can just bill me a small chicken bowl, instead. That’s to help you not get in trouble with your father, I doubt he wants something like this to be known amongst customers.”
Taro’s face showed his hesitancy, but he eventually relented under the explanation given. “Alright, you’ll just be charged with one small chicken bowl. Your order shall come shortly.” Taro went into the back to work on the order.
Soon enough, the large bowl came out with a receipt attached. A quick glance showed that it was a small chicken as they agreed. This time, Jack took his time in eating the bowl. Making sure to drink plenty of water and putting ice cubes in his mouth to cool it. It took him a full 20 minutes to eat it all, and Jack left with just a slightly sizzling mouth rather than an inferno at 11:50. He managed to get to work early today and began landscaping the town square.
Line Break Here
Jack closed the door behind him, his body having a pleasant ache that tried to drag him to sleep. It was currently around 7:00 PM, the time that Jack usually comes back from his training for the last week. He could already smell the food that Disi had made and could feel his mouth salivating. Unfortunately, his appetite was somewhat lessened from the discovery he had today during his training.
The boost that had happened yesterday was nearly as big now. He went from doing an entire week’s worth of progress in one afternoon, to barely getting more than an average day of training. He could tell that his Chakra got better, but it was negligible. He couldn’t understand why his progress slowed down so much. He did everything the same as yesterday!
Jack wandered into the living room and then headed to the doorway that led to the kitchen/dinning area. There he saw that Disi was just setting every food onto the table, while the children were setting up the last of the plates and glasses. Larry was just sitting there, sweat and a bit of dirt on his face while his “yard work” outfit was just a bit dirty here and there. His hands, though, were freshly cleaned as there wasn’t a bit of dirt up to his elbows.
Merci spotted Jack first. “Welcome back, Mister Jack!” She said in that adorable voice all little girls had that made you think of gumdrops and rainbows. Irah grunted out a “hey” upon hearing Merci, shooting a glare at her. Man, what a bad brother. Can’t he tell that his sister could never do anything wrong?
Tate just looked at Jack and said a small “hello”, too. Yet, he was just focused on the food and plates. He had his priorities straight, for no man can look at such food and ignore it. Speaking of men, Larry didn’t even notice Jack at all. His head and eyes locked straight onto the food, except for what seemed to be a small glance down Disi’s shirt when she bent over in front of him while placing a plate of food down.
Disi’s small smile alongside her tired face was all Jack got from her as she focused on placing down the few plates of food on her arms and hands. After she placed everything down, she then turned her full attention to Jack, who had just sat down at his place at the table. “Welcome back, how was the job hunting?” She asked him.
Jack could feel the guilt and nervousness rise up within him as he lied about going to another far out farm. He really did want to get a better paying job, but he hadn’t really focused on it now with his new study of Chakra happening in the evenings. He also felt pretty bad lying to such a generous family. He knew Ninja used deception, but to use it against allies!? That seemed a bit too far for Jack on an ethical standpoint. Yet, he lied anyway.
Why? Because he didn’t want this kind family to be disappointed in him. Betraying their trust like this hurts so much, but just imagining their hurt faces when they realize his lie hurts even worse. So, he just kept up the deception.
After the food was placed and all of the family sat down in their proper places, they all began to eat. Conversation soon flowed out from each family member as they talked about their day. Larry had a day off today and focused more on his car, until Disi got stern with him and had him work on the vines growing up the house’s side. He had just gotten down the 20th vine of 40, and it took him 2 hours to do it. Jack respected Larry for his kindness and love of his car, but man was he lazy everywhere else.
The children had all gone to school today, but they only had 3 days left before summer break came. Surprisingly, school here worked a lot more like Japanese school systems. The school year started in January, and ended sometime in December. Alongside that, summer break was just one month long to help students not be in a hot room with twenty other smelly kids. All three kids seemed to have formed their own group of friends in school, too.
Irah made a group of friends made almost entirely out of delinquents or outcasts. No surprise there, Jack still hadn’t forgotten the fact that Irah had used his snake to scare Jack twice. Irah getting with a bunch of delinquents to “hang out” on the rooftop was easily in character with him. Especially since, in both this culture and Japan’s, the rooftop was strictly off-limits.
Tate, on the other hand, seemed to be part of a bunch of smarter students. Tate, himself, was apparently a genius, and he had tested himself out of the second year of middle school and joined the last year at the start of the school year. He’ll be going into high school with his friends next year. Though, they do seem to get into some trouble. Apparently, Tate and his friends made a potato launcher earlier in the year without adult supervision. During the testing process, the launcher fired off by accident and nailed the school’s PE teacher straight in his nuts.
Merci seems to have the biggest friend group of them all. In fact, according to her, she was friends with everyone in her class. Although, she also had an “inner circle” of friends that they did a lot together outside of classes. It was mainly made up of three other girls and one boy, who seemed to be the troublemaker of the lot. A small list of the troubles that he got in were when he broke a neighbor’s window, got caught stealing some kid’s book to glue pages shut, and he once blocked every sink in the boy’s and girl’s bathroom to flood both.
He should’ve gotten expelled from some of them, but Merci seemed to convince everyone that this delinquent was either “special needs” or that he had good reason to do so. Unfortunately, the school didn’t have enough “special needs” kids to create a separate class for them, so they had to stay in regular classes.
Jack couldn’t believe some of what he heard about the three children at the table, because some of it should belong in a 90s American comedy sitcom show. Yet, these kids seem to be able to handle such a chaotic life unimpeded.
Disi was a housewife, for the most part, and she dealt with everything that had to do with household affairs. She dealt with cleaning parts of the house that her height could reach that the other members couldn’t. This was because, other than Jack, Disi’s 5’8” frame was the tallest of the family. The kids dealt with chores that were closer to the ground. She also baked pastries and cookies on days the kids were home and sold them to people in the neighborhood. They almost looked like those Crumble Cookies back home.
When it came to Jack’s turn to describe his day, he decided to hide his day in half-truths. “Oh, it was the same old, same old. No jobs anywhere.” Which was true, because his morning runs showed him that no store had a “We’re Hiring” sign up front. Disi glanced at Jack, and said, “Well, keep trying. One of them has got to have something open.” Larry looked up, and it seemed an idea had popped into his head.
“You know, I talk with a bunch of local businesses here that have to pick up stuff from the station or just drop it off. I can keep an eye out for anyone talking about a shortage of labor. Maybe even reference you to them.” Jack was conflicted on this offer. If he did find a full-time job, he can’t go and spend enough time training every day. However, if he refuses, he’ll just be suspicious of why he wouldn’t want a job. He hesitated to answer, and Larry seemed to pick up on this.
“Don’t worry, I understand.” He chuckled while Jack was a bit confused. “‘A man doesn’t take handouts like this.’ That’s what you’re thinking, right? I get it. It hurts a man’s pride to beg or accept handouts.” Jack intervened a little. “It’s not that, I just- I’m not comfortable with taking job opportunities I know nothing about.”
Larry nodded, seeming to be slightly thoughtful and understanding where Jack was coming from. “I get it. Well, if you’re uncomfortable with that, I don’t know if you’ll ever get a job anytime soon.” Jack was surprised at what Larry just said. Larry, seeing the look, continued with, “You’ll never get better in life by being comfortable with your situation. I mean, not to insult you or anything, but you haven’t really connected with anyone here, right? Other than that Taro fellow, and even he isn’t going to hire you since they already have 3 cooks there.
“If you want to find a job, you’re gonna have to make friends with people. Being a boss’ friend makes it easier for you to be accepted as an employee. Mostly because a friend is more willing to ignore any faults you may have. It’s going to be uncomfortable, though.” Larry just shrugged his shoulders while taking another bite. Then, while chewing the last bit left, he said, “Although, when isn’t it uncomfortable to be better? Comfort just means that you’re content with where you are, that’s why I’m comfortable here. I made the best life I could.”
Jack just stared at Larry, who continued his eating after that speech. However, rather than focusing on getting a job, like Larry thought he was doing, Jack was thinking about how this speech related to his problems with his training.
‘It can’t be that, right? I couldn’t have been unable to better my strength because of that, right? I mean, it makes sense, but…’ But what? Getting stronger means that every aspect of your life must be uncomfortable? That when you train the spirit, it’s not the spice that matters, but pushing through the pain? If so, then…
‘I need to have Taro change something about the bowl tomorrow.’ Jack thought to himself. He then went back into eating his plate, and listened to the family while doing so. Yet, his mind was distracted with this new idea of his.
Line Break Here
Jack walked into the Tanaka Restaurant, his face stern with the will mustered up to ask something of Taro.
Taro, seeing this, felt his head sweat a little at what new thing Jack was going to suggest today. Hopefully, it won’t anger his father. Taro doesn’t think he can keep up with making large bowls of chicken ramen and only charging for a small. His father was starting to notice. In fact, his father was standing just a few feet away, taking charge today as supervisor of Taro and Daigo.
What came out of Jack’s mouth really did make Taro despair at the inevitable reaction of his father. “Taro, how do feel about making a Meat Bowl Ramen from Hell Challenge?”
AN: Wooo! Finally got my Patreon Chapters done. Hopefully someone bought a subscription and reads this. If not, then I guess the first eyes to see this will be the guys on Spacebattles (and soon, Sufficient Velocity). Anyways, sorry for the short chapter, but this is where the end of the “prolouge” of the story is and we’ll pick up next chapter with a bit of a time skip. Much longer than a week, infact.