xxxHOLiC 166

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xxxHOLiC
Chapter 166
[side text: "I can't eat anything that I've made myself"... Watanuki is dumbfounded at the woman's words...]
Watanuki: Why... / ...can't you?
Customer: Because I don't want to.
Watanuki: B - / But... // It's perfectly well made...
Customer: But, well...

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[side text: The woman rejects her own food even when offered it to taste. With a smile, she tells the cold and inexplicable reason!!]
Customer: It's just so disgusting, don't you think? // Eating something you've made yourself...

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Mokona: I want to drink sake~!
Watanuki: ...When we get back.
Mokona: I want it no~w! / Like, there!
Watanuki: "There", he says...

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Mokona: Sake~! Sake~~~~! // [aside]is it good stuff?[/aside]
Doumeki: [aside]yeah.[/aside] // Should you be wandering around outside at this hour?
Watanuki: It's fine. / I don't even meet many nasty spirits recently.
Mokona: And he's got me, too~!

5
Watanuki: ...Hey...
Doumeki: What is it?
Watanuki: ...Can you cook?
Mokona: [aside]ahhh~~![/aside]
Doumeki: I can... / But I usually don't.
Watanuki: What's with that...? / Well, anyway, you can do it, yeah?
Doumeki: To an extent.

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Watanuki: Have you ever considered it disgusting... / ...to eat the food that you've made yourself?
Doumeki: No.
Watanuki: Me neither... / But...
Doumeki: Is this about your cookery lessons?

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Watanuki: Apparently she's going to get married... // So, I thought that rather than just the basic recipe, it would be nice if she could make the food to suit her fiancé's own personal tastes... // But... // Apparently it's not that she has no sense of taste, or anything like that. // She can eat out, or eat food that other people have made, just fine... / But food that she's made herself...

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Doumeki: She finds it "disgusting", huh.
Watanuki: I mean, if she was unable to eat something because she didn't know who'd made it... / I could understand something like that... // But to be unable to eat something that she made with her own hands... / I just can't fathom it... // ...You know those nikorogashi I gave you at school, the ones that she'd made?
Doumeki: Yeah.
Watanuki: How did they taste? / You acted all weird when you tasted them, right? // And afterwards... / ...you wouldn't even touch them.

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Doumeki: ...They tasted like... I couldn't tell who'd made them.
Watanuki: Well, yeah... it was someone you'd never met, after all...
Doumeki: No... // I couldn't feel any sense of the person who'd made it, any of their nature or quirks in it. // Or any feeling.

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Watanuki: But... well... // That's because all the seasonings and stuff were straight from the recipe...
Doumeki: Even so. // Even unconsciously, if you happen to like things sweeter, you find yourself adding that bit more sugar or that bit more soy sauce... / ...or if you like things softer, you find yourself boiling it that little bit longer. // Having lived somewhere cold, or lived somewhere hot... / Even little things like that can make a dish different, even if it was made in just the same way.

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Watanuki: ...That's true, but...
Doumeki: It's the same for your own "taste".
Watanuki: But, I...
Mokona: Your body remembers.

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Doumeki: There are things you don't think about with your head... / ...your body just picks them up, according to all the things you've been through in your life, right? // Things like taste are the epitome of that.
Watanuki: Even if I don't remember... / ...you think it's still all there... inside of me...? // The feelings of the people who made food for me...

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Doumeki: So... / What do you want to do? // From here on out.
Watanuki: ...I accepted this task, so I want to continue. // And so... // I want to get her to eat it. / The food she made herself.

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Doumeki: I see. // ...In that case... // Make us some lotus root hasamiage.
[sFX: CRASH]
Doumeki: I've got some lotus root that I was given. / And some taro.
Watanuki: [aside]and how the hell does that follow on from "in that case"?![/aside]
Doumeki: Make something with that, too.
Mokona: Mokona lo~~~ves lotus root and taro~!
Watanuki: [aside]Aghhh, you're like a greedy little tag team![/aside]

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Watanuki: You better not have brought me here because you knew he had lotus roots and taro hanging around, Mokona...
[sFX: stand]
Mokona: Eheheh~!
Watanuki: Is it all in the kitchen?!
Doumeki: Yeah.
Watanuki: I'll just be taking whatever I need from the fridge, all right?!
Mokona: Good luck~~~!
[sFX: slam]
Doumeki: ...Is it all right? // For him to be here.

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Doumeki: I'm sure that she... // ...would be able to help him out more...
Mokona: Watanuki still needs to keep on moving forwards...
[side text: Doumeki's words make Watanuki consider the true meaning behind cooking. Was there some form of hitsuzen behind coming here, as well?!]
[bottom text: Mokona's deep-sounding statement. What does it really mean...?! Next chapter will be on sale 6th October!!]