The cooking show

In the studio, a lot of cells had gathered. A new episode of the famous, beloved by many, cooking show of Miss Macrophage was being filmed right now. The decorations were all put out, the costumes and make-up fixed, the participants ready to enter the scene and the viewers on their seats. Soon, the spotlights were turned on, and Miss Macrophage appeared before the camera, like a white swan. "Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen! Here I am, your host Macrophage. We are starting another episode of my cooking show 'Guests at Macrophage's'. Today, our duel will be between a red blood cell-team, which will be assisted by Miss Eosinophil, and a team of leukocytes-neutrophils. Allow me to introduce our beautiful ladies first: Miss AE3803, Miss AA5100, Miss NT4201 and Eosinophil. They will compete against our brave neutrophils U-1146, U-2048, U-4989, and U-2626. Let's see whether they are as courageous in the kitchen as on the battlefield against antigens." The participants, who were feeling pretty awkward due to all the cameras that were approaching them one after another, were smiling uncomfortably and waving, greeting the viewers. They were standing behind long tables, where everything necessary for cooking had been prepared: ranging from knives of different sizes, forks, and spoons to varied cooking pots, frying pans and other utensils, including some useful appliances like a mixer, a blender, and a lot of interesting, but strange stuff. After having recovered from the first shock of being publicly filmed, AE and a few other participants started to study all these devices with interest. "According to our tradition," announced Miss Macrophage. "At the very beginning of our cooking competition, the teams have to exchange recipes and also provide to each other the ingredients of their future dishes." She grabbed her cheeks and continued, her eyes shining from excitement. "I can't wait to see what they will surprise us with! Alright, so what do we have here?" With a smile, she collected the notes with the recipes from every team and looked at them. "Oh wow, this is sure something!" she oohed, wishing to stretch the intrigue. "And now, the captain of each team has to read out loud what they will have to prepare." "Who's our captain?" started to resound from both sides. "Me, of course," affirmed AE's senpai. AE and Eosinophil didn't seem to mind that, and NT just looked at her grouchily, but didn't say anything. "U-1146, do you want to be our captain?" he was asked by his friends. It wasn't like they didn't want to themselves, but neither were they really fired up to take all that responsibility being the captain implied. "Alright," he agreed. "Okay, so what are we preparing today?" asked Miss Macrophage, approaching the ladies with her microphone first. "Stew out of marinated bacteria," read out the senpai and grimaced with disgust. "How awful!" her friends exclaimed at once. Eosinophil was in thoughts. "Good, and what do we have here?" The macrophage headed to the other team. "Cherry pie," announced U-1146. "How awful!" exclaimed the neutrophils. And U-4989 was obviously taking a cue from Eosinophil, getting in thoughts, letting out an uncertain "M-m..." and dreamily smacking his lips. "What do you think? Will you manage?" the macrophage winked at them all. "I think so," answered U-1146 in everyone's place, while thinking that he had never baked a pie before. "And what about you, ladies?" the host turned to the rivals. "Of course!" assured the senpai cheerfully. "Then it's time to get started," decided the macrophage and commanded: "Bring the ingredients to the studio!" The stagehands arrived, carrying a lot of different stuff. The participants received a more than needed amount of ingredients, in case they would have to remake something. Though they actually wouldn't have time for that since it was limited for the show, but still. So the neutrophils got a huge sack of the "very best", as the macrophage assured, flour, a whole pile of eggs, several packages of butter, salt, sugar and yeast, and also a basket filled with cherries for the filling. And the girls-team received a variety of vegetables and a Pseudomonas aeruginosa, freshly killed by the neutrophils, who had brought it into the studio at the request of the macrophage (after which it had been safely waiting for its appearance on the scene in the fridge). "Listen," said U-4989 doubtfully to his captain. "Are you sure that it's not dangerous for the red blood cells to mess around with the bacterium?" "Uhm... I don't know," admitted U-1146 honestly. "We did spray it with defensins, didn't we?" "But you're not sure?" "No," answered U-1146, and suddenly started to terribly worry about his Red-chan. Before that, he had been so incredibly happy to be there with her, in the same show, that he didn't even look at the cameras, only at her... And now... But before he could manage to get properly worried, Miss Macrophage gave the command to let the competition begin. So, hoping for the best, U-1146 tried to concentrate on the cooking. Neither him nor his friends had ever had anything to do with pies, they never had that necessity. Stewing a bacterium or maybe frying it with some onions to make the phagocytosis more pleasant, that yes, but nothing with pies. Aside from that, U-1146 was also able to prepare some simple dishes like noodles or soups and could fry an egg, and together with U-2048 he had even managed to somehow make a potato casserole. Well, it did get burned a bit, but no problem, they enjoyed it. Or more precisely: U-4989 was enjoying it, while being chased by these two through the whole kitchen, who were trying with all their might to get it back from him. So how did U-1146 and his friends manage to land in a cooking show with such poor skills? Well, it just had happened somehow. First, U-4989 and U-2626 had the idea to do a bet of making sausages out of streptococcus legs to grill them after that directly in the yard, then U-2048 had arrived, affirming that they were doing everything wrong and showing them how to do it right. Next, U-1146 had bumped into them and gave them the idea to add some spices. Their work advanced soon quickly, and other leukocytes were attracted by the delicious smell, wanting to have a taste. And in the end, Miss Macrophage had appeared out of nowhere, praised their skills and culinary fantasy for a long time and then invited them to her show. That's why they didn't have a choice now. Skills or not, they had to win. Although U-1146 didn't see anything bad in having Red-chan's team win, he correctly assumed that he should better give it his all to not make the guys sad. Especially being their captain. Having understood the recipe, the neutrophils immediately arrived to the conclusion that the most difficult part would be a good dough. And besides, there were some not quite understandable notes like "add to your taste" or "by eye". Not knowing anything about the subtleties of making dough, the neutrophils decided to play it safe and make several pies, at least one should turn out fine. U-1146, U-2048 and U-2626 started working on their own dough each, trying out different proportions of water, flour and so on, and U-4989 was tasked with the filling. Things went on, and U-1146 and U-2048 even managed to create something that looked like dough. While U-2626 had added too much water, so that his got runny, sticking to the entire table, his hands, the hair covering his eyes and everything U-2626 was careless enough to touch. U-2048, on the contrary, had used not enough water, and his dough turned out to be so hard it was difficult to knead. Everything around them was covered in flour that all three of them had forgotten to sift before adding it. The three guys themselves and also U-4989, who was standing next to them, were all covered in flour as well, and U-4989 with cherry stains as well. Especially around his mouth. "U-4989, you have to make the filling, not stuff yourself with cherries!" protested his friends, finally noticing how wonderfully he was "making the filling". "Well, I did have to taste them, at least!" he justified himself. "They should have been enough for three pies, and you've already eaten half of the basket!" exclaimed U-2048 angrily. "Won't do it again," U-4989 assured, crossing his cherry-stained fingers behind his back. "I hope so for you!" threatened U-2048, and then turned around to U-2626: "And you need more flour, I think." "That's right, more flour!" agreed the latter and wholeheartedly added a full mug, raising flour clouds in the process. Clouds that covered the "culinary experts" from head to toe.  The meanwhile already bored macrophage reacted immediately: "Dear TV viewers, we have here white blood cells in flour. Haha, this sounds like a new gag!" she joked. The result were some sparse laughs from the audience, which were turned into cheerful laughter thanks to the sound technician. The beautiful ladies, in the meantime, weren't managing any better. Reading the recipe, written in U-2626's crooked handwriting and with U-4989's notes, the senpai just couldn't grasp how it was possible to cook something so disgusting. "First of all, we need to marinate the meat." She grimaced, looking at the dead Pseudomonas aeruginosa. "It says here that we need to soak it in water before marinating," corrected the pedantic NT4201. "So do it, then," suggested the senpai. "U-Uh! What kind of marinade is this? Soy sauce and vinegar? And something else I don't understand..." she muttered, looking at the crumpled piece of paper. "And then... red pepper, or what?" "Well?" she was rushed by the others, since they didn't have any time to spare. "Alright," said the senpai. "We'll do it like this: NT soaks the meat, I marinate it, AE cuts up the zucchini and tomatoes, and you," She pointed at Eosinophil. "You go do something as well." "I'll help to cut up the bacterium," the latter said shyly and took the meat from NT4201. "I'm sorry, I just know how to do it right," she explained, getting even more embarrassed. "As you wish," answered NT coldly. And while they were struggling with the meat part of the dish, the senpai was trying to understand, what kind of strange marinade the neutrophils were using. It would have never even occurred to her that its main ingredient would be the B Lymphocyte's antibodies (he was sitting in the auditorium, by the way, cheering for the neutrophils and mischievously chuckling.) Having finished with the butchering and helped with the soaking, Eosinophil explained to her that this "weird doodle there" was immunoglobulin A that attracted phagocytes. Applied on a bacterium, the latter could already be considered marinated, so it wasn't necessary to bother with it, instead adding soy sauce, salt, and a bit of sugar with red pepper, to your taste, so to say. And she, for her part, would have also added onions and garlic, to cover up the germ's bad aftertaste. Meanwhile, Miss Macrophage actively supported the intrigue, so that the viewers wouldn't get bored. And what would be a cooking show without any intrigues? "Ladies and Gentlemen, our participants are working hard. It's time to ask them whether they have managed to found out the main secret of the dish they're preparing according to their rival's recipe. So what do our dear neutrophils have to say to this?" "Well... I suppose that the secret of success lies in a good, fluffy dough," uttered U-1146 into the microphone held out to him. "And in a delicious filling!" added U-4989, still devouring cherries. "Take the berries from him, before he eats them all!" yelled U-2048 and started to drag him away from the basket together with U-2626. Ignoring the ensuing fight (since U-4989 didn't plan on giving up and let himself be separated from his beloved cherries), the macrophage went over to the girls. "Alright, so did you already discover the main secret of the dish?" "Of course," said the senpai, nodding and trying to look smart. "The most important things are the soy sauce, the red pepper..." "Excuse me," intervened Eosinophil, feeling very uncomfortable while doing that. "The bacterium meat obviously gets its unique taste from the immunoglobulin A that is used by B Lymphocyte-san to attract phagocytes. This process is called opsonization, which literally means 'dinner is served'," she recited like during an quiz at school. Her red-blood-cell-teammates were staring at her, the expression on their faces similar to that of a victim of a failed mitosis. AE even hiccuped. "I see!" The Macrophage (who already knew all of that perfectly) widened her eyes, laughed mischievously and quickly changed the topic, before the viewers' heads could explode. "And I thought it was the soy sauce and the pepper..." grumbled the senpai, staring unhappily at Miss Eosinophil, since she didn't consider her very smart-looking. And our erythrocyte-senpai couldn't bear it when someone was smarter than her. Feeling useless, she thought with sadness about the way she had managed to land in that cooking show at all. This story was slightly longer and more complicated than the one of the neutrophils. At first, AE3803 had wanted cherry pie, but all she had managed to find was a recipe for it. She put it into her pocket and went to work, thinking that she could take a risk and try to bake the pie herself in the evening. During an early break, she then bumped into her senpai and the latter dragged her somewhere together with her kohai, who just said a brief "hello". As it turned out, the senpai was dreaming about participating in some fashion-show and even had some invitations for it. On the way to the studio they successfully got lost a couple of times (mainly thanks to AE) and then also in the building itself where the shooting was taking place. Having entered the wrong door, the young women were skillfully grabbed by the macrophage's hands and forcefully brought into her show that had been precisely lacking participants. And Miss Eosinophil had the incredible luck to become the fourth member of the improvisational team, as she had arrived to give an interview for the news channel about a fight against parasites. She had skillfully been dragged to the macrophage's show as well, where the future victims of the show-business were already dressed in the same caps and aprons before they knew it, and also put before the fact that they had to present a recipe within the next five minutes before the broadcast. The latter was found very conveniently in AE's pocket, and so, the team's fate had been decided once and for all.   Miss Macrophage's helpers had a look at the notes and immediately brought the flour and everything else that was needed. They even found an entire basket of cherries! The girls exchanged looks and sighed, resigning themselves to the fact that they had no other choice than to participate. Suddenly the happy neutrophils appeared next to them (conveniently bringing a dead bacterium with them) and as soon as the senpai noticed how U-1146 and AE were looking at each other in silent adoration, how U-4989 was flirting with NT and how sexy the other two neutrophils were looking, she forgot her fashion-show on the spot. Her companions weren't against participating in a cooking competition at all, especially AE, who was naively assuming that they would prepare the pie themselves. Well, to be honest, Eosinophil did try to carefully mention that an important interview was waiting for her, but no one was listening... And this was how everything had turned out. And while the senpai was engaged in self-digging, the macrophage noticed that it wasn't obviously going that great for both teams or at least worse than they would like, and decided to improvise in order to not disappoint the viewers with badly prepared dishes. "Ladies and Gentlemen, as you may remember, the cooking always comes first in our show. Competition is good, but the taste of the food is the most important! So here we have a new rule that allows the teams to give each other one hint."  "So what?" the senpai came to again. "We don't need their hints." "Actually, we do," commented Eosinophil, trying the sauce the other had made. With a sauce like that, they could ruin the entire meat. "Well, then let's exchange favors," agreed the senpai in the end. The neutrophils immediately moved over to the second team's table and started to excitedly give them advice. It was way more than just one hint, but Miss Macrophage pretended not to hear anything and that everything was as it should be. "Don't add too much soy sauce," said U-2048. "Better this spice than that," explained U-1146. "A bit more garlic would be nice," recommended U-2626. "And it would also be great to add potatoes and carrots," said U-4989 with a dreamy smile, apparently imagining a whole mountain of delicious potatoes and carrots. "Dice the meat a bit finer," taught U-2048. "And add the zucchini and tomatoes in the end, so they don't turn into mush," U-1146 and U-4989 warned AE, who was already preparing to put them into the frying pan. "Uh-huu," she nodded effusively. "Now it's your turn to give us hints," the neutrophils reminded. The girls ran over to their rivals' table and couldn't really grasp what they were seeing. Everything was covered in flour, and three piles of dough were laying on the table: one was looking not that bad, the second one had cracks with unsifted flour spilling out, and the third was completely liquid and running over half the table. And to top it off, all of that was decorated with cherry stains, like a leopard's spots. "Leukocyte-kun," AE tugged at U-1146's sleeve. "Say, did you guys add any yeast?" "No, did we have to?" he asked, remembering with surprise that there actually was something like that on the paper with the recipe. "Well, maybe it's too late now, anyway," she said, disappointed. "Now the dough won't rise and will be very dense." "What should we do, then?" "Dough without yeast exists as well," intervened the inordinately clever NT. "But instead, a leavening agent is needed. Such as soda, quenched with vinegar, for example." U-1146 and AE3803 were looking at her, as if they had seen a flying saucer being repaired in the neutrophils' shed. They both weren't able to grasp that peculiar process of quenching soda with vinegar more than just vaguely. In the end, it turned out that they didn't have any soda to begin with, but for raising the dough, they did need the gas, resulting from the quenching. During the fermentation process of the dough, carbon dioxide was produced as well, this is why yeast dough had to be knocked down, in order to saturate it with oxygen... U-1146 and AE learned all that from NT as well, but the latter was only well-versed in the theory about it... And then, they suddenly found a solution. "We don't have time to make a new dough and to let it rest, but if we had already produced gas..." began U-1146. "Carbon dioxide!" exclaimed AE and rushed off to the dressing room where she had left the box she had brought from work. This was a desperate experiment, but the viewers were thrilled! The macrophage herself was also watching with huge interest. It would have never occurred to her to "carbonate" pie dough with the gas the erythrocytes were carrying around. If they don't cause an explosion or something else like that, then it would be a real sensation and breakthrough in the art of cookery. First of all, U-2048 and U-2626 corrected the consistency of their dough with the right amounts of water and flour, and also added some vegetable oil, as advised by the macrophage. Well, the latter didn't have any right to get involved into the process, to be honest, but still did that in secret. The fate of pies was being decided here, after all! They decided to do the carbonation by putting the dough into a large pot and wrapping it around the top part of the gas tank. At the first try, it slightly exploded, flying into the eyes of everyone standing close, and the tank hit, due to the recoil, U-2626, who was holding it, on the nose, but then things got better. After several attempts with varying degrees of success, they managed to create two small pies from the remaining dough. And the amount of cherries resulted to be just enough for them. The cherries that had been taken away just in time with titanic efforts from the insatiable U-4989. NT was wisely keeping her distance from him and from the experiments, and went to peel the potatoes. Looking at her, AE remembered that they hadn't finished their own dish yet, and ran to help her. But unfortunately, all the vegetables were already cut, so she didn't have any other choice than to chop the bacterium Eosinophil had trenched earlier, and its parts were looking quite... nasty, to put it mildly. But if Leukocyte-kun had managed his task, then she would too, so AE started to desperately wield the knife, closing her eyes as tightly as she could, which was a bad idea, actually. This resulted into bacterial bits flying into all directions and getting stuck here and there. The grimacing NT was collecting them into a bowl and pouring the sauce made by the senpai over them. Then she imperturbably put the saucepan on the stove and added a big amount of oil into it. Actually, they should have done the first thing a bit earlier, before getting distracted by the pies, so that the meat could get marinated better. But oh well. As soon as the bacterial meat had landed in the saucepan, it started to emit a smell, a very, uhm, unpleasant one. AE and her kohai exchanged gazes, and, without saying a word, added a big amount of onions and garlic on top of it. And, just in case, more sauce and, in the end, potatoes. Having closed the pan with a huge convex lid, they sighed with relief. They sincerely hoped that all that would get a bit smaller during the stewing process, so they could also stuff there the zucchini and tomatoes. Also, they had forgotten the carrots. AE suggested grating and adding them together with the zucchini. NT shrugged and proposed to add some paprika as well. The ingredients weren't theirs after all, so it wouldn't be a waste. AE commented that she would have liked to add some cabbage, but there really wasn't any room for it. The kohai thought for a while and then said that it would have been better without that disgusting meat, and then the cabbage would have also fit inside. AE couldn't disagree with that. She decided to prepare the stew once again at home, but this time with cabbage instead of meat. The neutrophils, meanwhile, didn't allow the dough to rest, instead trying to roll it out and put it into the baking molds. After finally having managed it somehow, it was time for the filling. And for U-4989, who had prepared it, to get in trouble. "What's that?" protested U-2048, poking it with a spoon. "You had to remove the pits from the cherries!" commented U-2626. "But instead he removed the cherries and left the pits behind!" they said at the same time. "What a disgrace!" "Oh, come on, it'll be alright!" "No, it won't!" "Alright," U-1146 stopped them. "Let's take what we have, mix it with sugar and starch and let it simmer for a while. It should be enough for two pies if we don't put in too much." The neutrophils stopped their latest argument and immediately did what their captain had told them. They were very good friends and well-disciplined guys, after all. U-1146 himself carried the pot with the berry preparation to the stove and noticed that the girls' stew was burning. "Red-chan! Your dish is burning!" he warned, automatically lowering the heat under their saucepan. "Aaah!" yelled AE and ran together with her kohai to the rescue of their culinary masterpiece. "It had to be stirred," grumbled NT, taking the lid from the pan. "So why didn't you do it, then?" quipped the senpai, who had temporarily completely forgotten about the cooking, instead making cunning plans about how to flirt with these two sexy guys U-2048 and U-2626. And about Eosinophil: she had gotten immersed in the memories of that one time when she had prepared a heavenly aspic out of a parasitic worm, and didn't even think that it wouldn't occur to her teammates to lower the heat in order to let the dish stew and to stir it from time to time. After all, this was quite obvious, wasn't it? The red blood cells were, in the meantime, vigorously discussing how they could save their doomed dish. "Maybe we should add more oil?" AE asked their team captain. "Or maybe water?" suggested NT. "Or maybe we should just throw out that garbage?" the senpai was talking to herself. "Aah!" Eosinophil came to her senses, ripped the pan out of their hands, removed it from the fire, stirred the content, and ordered to stew the zucchini, the tomatoes and the hastily grated carrots separately and then mix them with the main part of the dish, adding herbs and spices in the end. "How complicated," grumbled the senpai, fumbling with the carrots using a spatula, while AE was piling up the zucchini and tomatoes over them. "Ouch!" the senpai suddenly yelled through the entire studio, holding her eye. The mean vegetable oil had squirted out, hitting it directly. The not any less mean macrophage was happy about such a turn of events, and enlivened the situation even more. After all, she was willing to do anything for the viewing rate. The viewers were gasping and worrying about the eye of the lady captain, and the neutrophils rushed to her rescue. The pleased senpai started pretending incredible sufferings and used her lucky chance to ensnare the handsome neutrophils. Leaving her in his friends' care, U-1146, who had almost missed the moment when the pie filling started to boil, removed the pot from the stove and started to cool it down. There was barely any time left, and they still had to bake the pies! What luck that U-4989 had thought of turning on the oven, to preheat it. The two of them poured the still not completely cooled filling into the pies, covered them with crooked and different sized dough stripes, and quickly put them into the oven. But before they could close the door, Miss Macrophage warned them to not slam it with too much force, otherwise the pies would collapse. "Wow!" said the neutrophils and carefully closed the door, holding their breath. Then U-4989 kept observing how the pies were baking, salivating and without taking his eyes off them. The ladies were, in the meantime, already finishing their stew, thinking that they certainly wouldn't take any risks by tasting it. So Eosinophil had no other choice than to promise to take over that dangerous mission herself. "Alright, just a bit more and we will start with the tasting of the meat dish, while the pies are still baking," announced the macrophage solemnly. Soon, the stew was ready and somehow served. AE and her kohai even put in some extra efforts and decorated the stewed germ with roses made out of radishes. "Hurray!" yelled the viewers, watching the long-awaited finale of that culinary thriller. Suddenly, all eyes turned to Miss Eosinophil, who almost fainted from embarrassment. Finally, she pulled herself together and bravely stuck the fork into a piece of stew. Everyone was holding their breath. U-4989 swallowed saliva convulsively while watching her putting it into her mouth. "Well?" asked the others impatiently. "It's quite good," replied Eosinophil out of pure politeness. She had tears in her eyes: as it seemed, the amount of onions, garlic and red pepper resulted to be a bit too large. "And what does the other team have to say? It's their recipe, after all. Did the ladies follow it well or rather improvise?" the macrophage bombarded the participants with questions, elbowing the neutrophils towards the table. U-1146 was the captain, so he had to try it first. He moved the fork to his mouth, however, was looking at his Red-chan alone and thinking only about her. So he didn't even taste anything: neither the pepper nor the rest. "Really good," he said absent-mindedly to the host, who wouldn't let him in peace. U-2048 and U-2626 exchanged skeptical gazes and decided to try it as well. Despite choking and shedding tears, they had no other choice than to agree with the captain that it was delicious, because the senpai had started to intensively making eyes at them. And U-4989 had already devoured half under NT's cool gaze, without even flinching. There was only one reason why he left the other half: he wanted to leave some room for the pies with the cherries he had grown to adore so madly. His friends were just now taking them out of the oven. After saying to the neutrophils that they were believing them every word, the ladies, who didn't want to try their creation themselves, switched over to the guys' pies. They took each a small piece, under the pretext of not wanting to gain weight, but in reality didn't wish to make the boys sad if the pies should turn out to be not very edible. But to their surprise, they weren't bad at all. AE quickly finished her piece. U-1146 was lovingly looking at her, finding her so cute, so full of crumbs and stains of tomatoes and other things.  "Red-chan, there's a piece of bacteria sticking to you," he said, suddenly noticing a gelatinous bit on her cheek. "Come here, I'll remove it." "Oh, Leukocyte-kun, it's really stuck!" exclaimed AE, as he was painfully tugging at her skin. "Then I'll try to phagocytize it," he decided. "Okay, go ahead," agreed AE and stuck her cheek out. U-1146 bent down and trapped the piece between his teeth. "Hihi," giggled AE. "As if you were kissing my cheek." Suddenly, the light and camera were turned towards them and everyone started staring at the sweet couple. "Wow, our captain's a real loverboy," commented U-4989, eating the pies on the sly.  "Yep," agreed his friends. "So our show ends with a kiss of love!" The host immediately hopped over to the couple. U-1146, who had removed the bacterial piece with his teeth, nervously swallowed it. The viewers and everyone else had apparently misunderstood the situation and for some reason started shouting "Kiss!". So the horribly embarrassed AE3803 and U-1146 didn't have any other choice than to kiss each other on the lips. Without stopping, until the viewers were satisfied. They got so immersed into it during the process that they forgot everything around them. In the meantime, the show had ended, the viewers and the film crew started leaving and the staff to clean the place up. Only now did the participants notice that the remains of their prepared dishes had mysteriously disappeared somewhere and started to yell out in indignation from behind the scene:  "U-4989, you scumbag! Didn't leave anything for us!" Soon, it became completely silent, and the lights went out. U-1146 and Red-chan came to their senses, when everyone had already left. "What a great show, don't you think so too, Leukocyte-kun?" AE was beaming. "Yes, you're right," agreed U-1146. "Maybe we could participate again one day?" she asked with hope. "Sure, why not." And the two of them were heading together to the exit, awkwardly tripping in the dark. U-1146 wasn't sure, whether the exit was really in the direction Red-chan was pulling him to, but absolutely didn't mind getting lost with her and holding her hand a bit longer. He was certainly happy that the strange turns of fate had brought them together to that cooking show, even though they could hardly be called good cooks...