sakon76

Plotbunny for a "Shaman" side story hit me. X, YnM, and CCD...

Hisoka and Watari stared at the experiment, eyes widening in identical horror.

"Okay," Watari said, adjusting his glasses. "We did something wrong again."

Hisoka set the glass tray down on the counter and took a step back, absently peeling off oven mitts. "But what?" he questioned. "We had the temperature right. We baked it for the right amount of time...."

There was absolutely no reason he could think of that the apple pie should be the charred inedible disaster it was.

Nor could he understand how the previous five baking attempts had ended up equally inedible.

"I think," Watari said, adjusting his glasses again, "that it's time we called in an expert."

*

Sumeragi Subaru did not completely understand what he was doing in Meifu. He had never been to the land of the dead before and had frankly not expected to enter it prior to his own death. When Watari Yutaka had appeared quite literally out of the blue sky and urgently requested his aid, however, he hadn't been willing to refuse.

"You see the problem," the golden-haired scientist said with a gesture.

"Not quite," Subaru admitted, looking confusedly at the six blackened *somethings* lining a kitchen counter. He looked up at Watari and at Kurosaki, whose residence this house apparently was.

"They're pies," Kurosaki muttered, glancing away.

"No they're not," Subaru stated.

"Well, they're *supposed* to be."

"That's the problem," Watari agreed, nodding enthusiastically. "Bon and I can't seem to figure out what we're doing wrong."

"Why can't you just buy a pie at a market?"

Kurosaki muttered something Subaru didn't quite catch. He cocked an expectant eyebrow at the eternal teenager, who reddened. "I wanted to bake a pie for Tsuzuki," Kurosaki repeated lowly, then glared at Subaru as if daring him to comment.

Subaru wouldn't dare, but he did hide his smile behind a hand as he contemplated the not-pies again. "So why do you need *my* help for this?" he asked. "I'm no better of a cook."

"Ah!" Watari smiled brightly at him. "But you do know the reputed best cook in Japan!"

Subaru blinked.

"Ijyuin Akira," Kurosaki prompted, hands in his pockets and looking at Subaru neutrally. "We were hoping--*I* was hoping--that you could ask him for a favor."