The Science of Cooking: White-People Food, Buckwheat Noodles, and Pasta

On an ordinary rainy night, a secret investigator whose death had been reported three years ago knocked on the door of his family home in Nagano. The one who opened it was the woman he had proposed to. His lover in black stared at him with shining eyes and streaming tears. Behind her stood his long-lost older brother, Takaaki. His brother held a child who looked just like him in his baby pictures. The child was two and a half, utterly adorable, and named Hiro. ...What kind of bizarre tale from the Twilight Zone was this? "What should I call you now?" "Elena Morofushi." "No, I mean..." "I've missed you so much. You too, Takaaki." "Brother, are you just going to stand there and watch?" "The mirror and the person are both gone. The mirror has returned, but the person has not." "S-sorry, I don't understand." "I'll go draft the divorce papers." ...The chaos in the Morofushi family finally came to an end late that night, over a steaming pot of Shinshu's local specialty, soba noodles. The title comes from the favorite foods of Elena, Hiromitsu, and Takaaki. Other titles rejected by my friends and family: "A Nagano Love Story" "What's Cooking at the Morofushi House Today?" "Brother-and-Brother Rice Bowls Are a Wonderful Tradition" "Reborn: From the Start, My Girlfriend Became My Sister-in-Law" "Is the World Still on the Detective Conan Side Today?" "The Most Important Thing Is for Your Family to Live Well" "The Story Begins with That Quack Who Couldn't Even Perform a Vasectomy" "If Your Psychic Power Only Lets You Read, It's No Wonder You Think You're a Witch When There Are So Many Mosquitoes" "In a Detective Conan World Without Magic, the Heroine Thinks She's a Prophet and Insists on the Supernatural Route. Is the Author Crazy?" * A melodramatic love story caused by a series of misunderstandings. Characters may or may not die, as appropriate. * The dead do not come back to life, and the world follows the rules of Detective Conan. Except in the bonus chapters. * The timeline after the start of Detective Conan is a mess, and before it, the tech tree does sit-ups. * Scotland had surgery before they got together. A quack doctor caused all this trouble. This story will go premium this Tuesday, with 10,000 characters posted that day. Starting with Chapter 20, earlier chapters will be locked, so please don't buy them again if you've already read them. My next Bomb Disposal Unit story, "That's What Childhood Friends Are For!", is now serializing. My chaotic-evil short story, "Would the Kongming of This District Believe in Myths?", is complete. My Police Academy Boys ensemble short story collection, "Stories of Time, Flowing Away Like Water", is ready for you to enjoy. My next undercover-unit story, "Fake Cigarettes, Fake Liquor, Fake Friends, But Childhood Friends Who Are Very Much Detective Conan", is in prepublication on my profile. Blurb: Mochizuki Nanami, 25, researcher of ancient scripts. She specializes in deciphering a variety of lost ancient inscriptions, linear scripts, and codes. She works for an archaeology company under a large multinational, multi-industry conglomerate. The company is great. It cured her congenital illness using its latest, unpublished biotech, then gave her a generous salary so she could do the research she loves. The only odd rule is that everyone at the company has to use a codename. The head office even assigns a personal codename to every employee who achieves outstanding results in their field. For example, Vodka, an idol fanatic; Gin, a cool-headed man with a warm heart and big-brother energy; and Vermouth, who keeps her youth through secret methods. Then things got even stranger. At one company party, she discovered that her cousin and her childhood friend from the neighborhood were here too. Weren't they supposed to be starting a band? They'd even chosen stage names and forbidden her from using their real names. Why had they come to work as interns at an archaeology company? In an unnoticed corner, Chateau Haut Brion opened fire on Bourbon and Scotch: "I knew it. No band with you in it could ever make it big. No, you wouldn't even be able to keep the band alive!" "Our band broke up because that tone-deaf Moroboshi Dai insisted on becoming the lead singer, crying and begging for it!" "Amuro, calm down. Moroboshi didn't do that... Though, it is true that he had something to do with our band not making it big." "Stop always taking his side! You indulge him way too much! Whatever. Nana, you've worked for years and saved up a little, so if you ever can't afford to eat, just come to me. -- Don't lose your dreams and turn into a company drone! Deciphering lost ancient spells doesn't suit you at all!" Her childhood friend disappeared after graduation to make music. Her cousin disappeared with him to start a band. Her company had a high staff turnover, and she was a senior executive. Mochizuki Nanami resolved to do everything she could to get them back on track before they starved to death. Then, all of a sudden, she saw her two childhood friends and new coworkers skipping work in broad daylight, off to fix plumbing and deliver packages. Good grief. She wondered if Gin, the senior HR manager, would be willing to save two security guard job offers for them. -- What's it like to suddenly discover that your childhood friend has become a codename-holding executive in an international criminal organization? Scotch sighed, while Bourbon struggled to find the words. They had to find a way to rescue this woman, who had worked at the company for seven years without realizing it wasn't a legitimate business! Theme: Treasure life and live each day with passion.