Chapter 124: Results and Review

“You’re quite skilled at this.”

“I told you Hiro-sama is a great cook!”

“No, uh, just about anybody can do this much y’know……”

After seeing me flip the okonomiyaki without any trouble when one side was cooked, Whisker sounded quite impressed while Mimi looked really proud.

“But still though. Before frying it, the mixture really resembles vo–”

“That’s no good, lady. If you say any more, it’ll mean war.”

Tina promptly interjected when Elma, who was drinking beer without a care, was about to utter a particularly disgusting comparison. Nice job Tina.

By the way, even if it really resembles okonomiyaki quite a bit, dwarf-yaki really is a different dish altogether.

The taste and texture do feel similar to an extent, but there’s just something that sets it apart. The taste of the veggie resembling cabbage is a bit off. It was the same for the meat resembling pork and squid. It’s like they’re missing something. However, the flavors of the dried green nori(?), katsuobushi(?), and mayonnaise(?) were all on point.

If I were to describe it… I guess it’s a dish about 80% similar to okonomiyaki. It was actually pretty close, all things considered.

By the way, it’s not like May can’t eat food, but since she won’t be able to properly digest it, she’ll need to dispose of all the ingested food afterward. She says it’s wasteful and didn’t participate in eating. She was currently frying Elma’s share of the dwarf-yaki for her. She learned the proper method by observing how Tina and Whisker did it, and now she was cooking like a pro.

“I-I did it.”

It looks like our Mimi has successfully cooked her portion of dwarf-yaki. Its shape was slightly off because she messed up a bit when she turned it over, but otherwise, it looks good to go.

“U-Um, Hiro-sama… If you’d like, um……”

“I’ll have some.”

“Yes!”

I opened my mouth and Mimi pushed a bite of the dwarf-yaki she cooked on top of her spatula in front of me. As I didn’t want my tongue to get burned, I blew on it to cool it down and then ate Mimi’s dwarf-yaki.

The subtle sweetness of the dough spread inside my mouth, coupled with the fresh sweetness of the cabbage(?), the rich flavors of the sauce and mayo(?), and the pleasant aroma of the green nori flakes…… Mm, delicious. Apart from the slightly disappointing umami of the other ingredients, the sauce and mayonnaise were practically perfect, and the green nori and bonito flakes were quite fine as well.

“H-How is it?”

“It’s delicious. You did really well. I bet you’d be a great cook if you get enough practice.”

“R-Really? E-Ehehe……”

Mimi squirmed in delight as she cut the rest of the dwarf-yaki into bite-size pieces with tremendous momentum. What incredible spatula-handling. Maybe Mimi actually has a talent for knife-fighting? I’ll try to have May instruct her next time.

“Say, boss. I’d like you to check out the fruit of our labor.”

After saying so, Tina took out her portable data terminal and placed it right next to the hotplate. She then operated it and projected a holographic 3D image of something which looked like a hatchet.

It resembled both a hand ax and a giant hatchet. But it wasn’t any of those either. There ain’t a trigger on the grips of normal hand axes and hatchets, and they certainly didn’t look like a fusion between a gun and an ax. It wasn’t just any gun either. It looked like a short-barreled rifle or shotgun.

It’s like they forcefully shortened the barrel and stock of the gun, which originally needed two hands to be wielded properly, in order to allow it to be handled with one hand easily. It also had a large and brutal-looking ax blade stuck on its barrel.

“It’s a really cool-looking weapon!”

Mimi’s eyes shone in excitement when she saw the weapon image. Oh, right. I guess this thing pushes all the right buttons for Mimi, who had a taste for punkish fashion. As for me, I was busy imagining how much more evil the RIKISHI would look like once it gets equipped with this thing. I mean, it already looked like a villainous machine, but this just takes it to a whole other level.

“Boss’s power armor will be able to handle this baby with one hand easily. So I ordered three of em. You can dual-wield and have one spare if either of the first two breaks down or get lost in battle.”

The amount displayed on the holo-video was exactly within the budget. I did have May supervise her so I wasn’t worried about her messing up, but it looks like she really did her best huh.

“Their overall specs are a bit lower than the splitter laser guns, but since the diffusion rate of the laser rounds was reduced, their accuracy is improved. We used hyper-compressed alloy as the material for the axe blades, so it can exchange blows with the monomolecular vibro-blades of noble-issued swords. Since the hyper-compressed alloy is used for the blades alone, we succeeded in designing a weapon with a good balance between handling and toughness. With the specs of Master’s power armor, you’ll be able to crush enemy power armors with ease.”

May went ahead and explained the weapon’s specs. She didn’t mention anything about fighting with flesh and blood people since they’ll be crushed in two without a doubt when hit with these things.

“What can I say? They look like weapons fit for villain characters.”

Elma grinned in amusement as she looked at the holo-display.

“I took the design of boss’s power armor into account when making these things after all. It’s best if they fit together, right? And their overall specs are quite impressive. As for the name… um… How about calling them hatchet guns?”

“Hatchet guns huh. Mm. Nice and simple. Sounds good.”

Ax guns huh. It feels weird when their name is written in Kanji. I’ll just stick with Katakana and call them hatchet guns.

“There seem to be no problems with the theoretical specs. We’ll just need to conduct a live test to know for sure. I’ll give you your reward once I receive the real thing and test them out.”

“Okay. No problem, boss.”

Tina nodded in agreement at my words as Whisker tilted her head in puzzlement.

“Reward?”

“That’s right. I’ll get a reward for designing this order-made weapon for boss’s custom power armor. If he’s satisfied with the specs, he’ll give me 10,000. If I exceed his expectations, it may double to 20,000.”

Tina explained the situation to Whisker with a big grin on her face. Whisker gave me a longing gaze.

“It’s just for big sis……?”

“Uh… Yeah, sorry. I’ll make sure to get your help if something comes up next time.”

“It’s a promise, okay?”

“Okay, okay, I promise….. Hm?”

Now hold up. From the way this convo is going, did she just assume she’ll be together with us from here on out? I turned to Whisker once more and found her smiling sweetly while Tina had a face which practically said ‘all according to plan’. Mimi was still happily eating her dwarf-yaki while Elma gave me a strained smile. I feel like they just casually turned it all into a fait accompli… Oh well. It’s not like I’ve made the final decision yet anyway.

“How was Tina as an engineer, May? Can you give me your impressions?”

“Wai…… Don’t just ask something like that with me here, boss!”

Tina’s expression turned from a smiling one to a panicky one. May ignored her and proceeded to answer while continuing to cook dwarf-yaki.

“There are no problems regarding her engineering skills and knowledge. She has the skills and the knowledge to be expected of a first-class engineer at the very least. As for the conceptualization of ideas, I feel that she is more of a steady type as opposed to the spontaneous type. Despite her usual cheeky attitude and recklessness, she is very focused when it comes to working. She was able to greatly utilize her overflowing passion that gave Master excessive amounts of trouble in order to improve her work, and the result speaks for itself.”

“I don’t know if you’re actually praising me or criticizing me.”

“But it’s basically true, right?”

Tina ate her dwarf-yaki with a troubled expression as Whisker affirmed May’s impressions.

I really thought Tina, who was a ball of energy, was the instinctive type of genius, but I guess I was completely off. So she’s the steady type huh. Come to think of it, apart from the looks, the design and specs of the hatchet guns didn’t implement anything too drastic.

“Whisker’s the one who designs a lot of crazy stuff y’know.”

“Calling them crazy is rude, sis. I just don’t like being half-baked.”

“I get that, but the stuff you make has some pretty drastic quirks. That ain’t really good. Remember that thruster you designed recently? Because it had that bonkers inertial control system, the people who piloted ships installed with it all coughed up blood after.”

“But isn’t having high output and response what’s important when it comes to thrusters?”

“Even so, there’s a thing called ‘limits’ y’know……”

The sisters were having a pretty dangerous-sounding discussion all of a sudden. Did people really end up coughing blood due to a bonkers inertial control system? Just what kind of killer acceleration did they get to experience to the point of coughing blood? That’s scary, man.

“She looks harmless, but isn’t Whisker the more dangerous of the two?”

“I’ll say this first. I don’t want to turn into minced meat inside Krishna’s cockpit.”

“You tell me. Even I don’t want to experience something like that, okay.”

Anyway, I think I now had a pretty good grasp of the sister’s personalities after spending time with them. I’ll just ask Mimi and Elma’s impressions about Whisker after we go back to the hotel later. I’ll also share my experience with Tina with them.

Unfavorable first impressions aside, I don’t really find the personalities of these two sisters to be off-putting. I was leaning on letting them board the ship. But Mimi, Elma, and May’s opinions are also important. I’ll talk it over with them first before making my decision.