All Who Wander [Chapter 11 - COFFEE]

[Chapter 10]

When the trees gave way into open space, all Izuku could do was gasp. He breathed in a rush of cool air that tasted strange on his tongue, and closed his eyes for a minute just to feel it all. The breeze rushing at his face, the soft ground that gave way under his feet every time he shifted, and the long, low rush of water that moved in and out before him.

He knew what the ocean was, of course – he’d been to school as a kid – but he’d never quite understood exactly what it meant. The stretch of nothing but water, as far as the eye could see; the way it rose and swelled into waves, before crashing in and racing up the sand, then slowly retreating back out; and the sound of it, he’d never expected it to crash and swish and a whole symphony of other noises he couldn’t quite find the words for.

Little buildings sat in the sand, running along the edge nearest the forest. It was almost like the buildings were taunting the waves, daring them to come closer, but still remaining at that safe distance, where the water couldn’t quite touch them, like a kid wiggling their fingers but failing to obtain the cookie jar. Everything about it felt electric. Izuku had spent a solid week in the forest, stopping in briefly to check on the bunnies and harvest some more lettuce seeds, but otherwise just walking and walking until his feet felt like they were going to give out beneath him.

“Hi there!”

Izuku whipped around to look for the source of the bright voice, the sand giving way and almost rolling his ankle, making him stumble a little to keep his balance. The pink-haired girl giggled at him, but still kept waving, a big grin spread across her lips.

“Are you a trader?” she called. “We just had one here a few days ago, you’re so early!”

“I’m not, actually!” Izuku called back, plodding toward her on unsteady feet. “I’m a... traveller. I live in a little village called Musutafu, back through the forest and up a big hill. But I’m trying to travel to all the different towns, to learn about you guys, and especially about what you eat!”

“What we eat?” the girl asked, eyebrows knitting together. “Well, mostly fish!”

“A friend said that, actually,” Izuku laughed. “I’ve never tried it! All we had at home was potatoes and mushrooms, so I just learned about growing and eating a whole bunch of new things, back in Chimura!”

“Well, come on in!” the girl offered, waving him over. “I’m Mina!”

“Izuku,” he said, grinning. “Thank you!”

Inside the little building, a dozen tables were packed with people, chattering with their neighbours and munching on various dishes – Izuku didn’t have to know anything about fish to realise they weren’t all eating the same thing, and he felt his eyes widen as he looked over them all.

Someone here liked to cook.

“This is Rikido,” Mina continued, weaving through the tables and letting Izuku awkwardly excuse himself as he sneaked through gaps, trying his best to avoid hitting people with his baggage. “Rikido, this is Izuku! He just arrived, he’s learning about food!”

“About food, huh?” Rikido asked, a big smile spreading across his face. “You’ve come to the right place! This is my little cafe, where we hang out and eat good food!”

“Wow,” Izuku gushed, turning to look around. “People come here specifically for food?”

“Yeah! This is how I earn a living, I cook good food and sell it to people. Then I buy ingredients from the traders, so I can cook some more food, and keep it going around. Mina here helps me out with the tables, and the fishermen sell me their stock at a good price to help keep the town fed.”

“Do you buy everything from the traders?” Izuku asked. “You don’t grow it yourself?”

Rikido and Mina fell silent for a second, then Rikido sighed, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“My grandfather used to,” he said. “My old man decided it wasn’t for him, when it got harder to grow things, and since then, no one has ever really managed it.”

“Oh no! Well, can I try something you make, then?” He pulled out his little bag of coins, glancing up at the menu hanging above the counter. “What should I eat, for my first time trying fish?”

“You’ve gotta try his salt and vinegar dish,” Mina suggested. “It’s the town favourite!”

“I wish he could,” Rikido said with a sigh. “Unfortunately I ran out of vinegar and the last trader didn’t have any. As soon as they make another visit, I promise you’ll be the first to try it!”

“Is any kind of vinegar okay?” Izuku asked, reaching for his stack of buckets – when his food stores had started to run low, he’d managed to condense it all down into one pile. “I only brought one jar, but I’m happy for you to have it!”

“You have vinegar with you?”

Izuku unhooked his buckets from his bag strap, lifting the stack onto the counter, and watching Mina and Rikido lean in curiously to take a look as he untied the strings. Mina gasped when she saw inside, but Rikido just stared at him silently, watching him pick up a heavy jar of Chimura vinegar.

“What is all of that?” Mina asked, peeking inside while Izuku dried off his jar with a rag. “Is this what you meant when you said you’re learning about food?”

“Yeah!” Izuku grinned. “Do you wanna see?”

“Come back here to the kitchen,” Rikido offered. “I’ll get started making you a meal, and you can tell us all about it.”

He opened a door behind the counter, and Mina ushered Izuku in, showing him through to a wide, spacious kitchen. Everything was shining clean, the shelves were stacked with pots and pans and plates, and Izuku could only marvel as he took it all in.

“I’ve never seen a kitchen like this,” he explained, when Rikido glanced over at him. “It’s huge! And here I thought I wouldn’t be in one for a while, when I left Chimura. I could have brought more vinegar and oil!”

“More?” Rikido asked. “We can only ever get a jar at a time, it’s so expensive and hard to come by. I didn’t know you could get more.”

“Well, it does sound like it’s pretty time-intensive to make,” Izuku mused. “But Aizawa said they make a lot of it, when they make it. I guess it just takes time to circulate, and everyone wants to buy some. And they use a lot of it to make cheese, too. But maybe I can get you some next time I visit!”

“Chimura is only a few days from here,” Mina said, leaning back against a counter to watch Rikido cook. “How did we not know they made it there?”

“It took me over a week,” Izuku admitted. “It’s not as close as you’d think.”

“Still close enough that we should have known!” Mina said. “Maybe I’ll take a trip there, one day.”

“I’ll take you any time you want!” Izuku offered. “You can see my farm, and meet all my friends – I bet you and Nejire would get on great, and everyone adores little Eri.”

“You have a farm?” she interjected. “You didn’t tell me that part!”

“Well, it’s not my farm,” he clarified. “It was kind of abandoned, so they all said I could stay there while I was in town, and then I started planting things and they actually managed to grow! Now Eri and her classmates take care of it, mostly, so I can travel and not have to worry about the crops not growing.”

“Do you enjoy growing crops?”

“I do! It’s so exciting to see things grow and to try new vegetables, and Mirio and I love to cook together and experiment, see which things work well together! Like we found out super quickly that lettuce and cheese work well together, but tomatoes match really well too! Aizawa called it salad, like potato salad but with other vegetables instead of potatoes.”

“I don’t think I’ve had a tomato,” Rikido said, glancing at Mina and getting a shake of her head. “We must not have those, here.”

“Oh! Here!”

He plucked a bundle from his bucket and offered it to them, already buzzing with excitement – seeing his friends try new foods, even the friends he’d only just met, always brought him a rush.

“They’ve gone a tiny bit soft,” he warned them, “since it’s been a few days. Normally they have a bit of a thicker skin to cut through. But they still taste delicious!”

He unwrapped some lettuce leaves from the bunny forest to match, then a jar of cheese from Chimura, holding them out with determination.

“Let’s have a salad!”

“How about you put us together a salad, while I make some fish?” Rikido suggested. “You can use all the kitchen facilities here, if you’d like.”

“It’s a deal!”

He grabbed a knife for the tomatoes, and a big bowl from a shelf, finding a place on an empty counter to get started. He washed his lettuce in a big basin, diced up some tomatoes carefully, scooped out little chunks of cheese, and mixed it all together in the bowl, looking fresh and colourful and ready to eat.

Rikido didn’t take much longer, his pan sizzling with heat over a wood stove, and soon the trio was gathered around a little table. Mina brought three mugs with her, something dark and steaming inside, and Izuku sniffed at it tentatively. Mina and Rikido each took a big sip, though, so Izuku did the same, grimacing when the bitter taste hit his tongue.

“Too much?” Mina asked knowingly, chuckling. “Here, try this.”

She grabbed a couple of jars, stirring in sugar and milk, and when Izuku took another sip, he smiled this time.

“What is this?” he asked.

“Coffee!” Mina told him. “We grow it on the edge of the forest, it helps wake you up when you have an early start to fish.”

“So you do grow stuff!”

“Well, the trees kind of take care of themselves,” she admitted. “There is a patch of soil there that we’ve tried to grow things in, but none of us seem to have the knack for it; nothing really grows anymore.”

“Do you think I could try planting something there?” Izuku requested. “I have some seeds, I’d love to try to make it work!”

“I don’t see why not,” Mina agreed. “No one owns it or anything, so I doubt anyone would object!”

“But for now, let’s eat!” Rikido insisted, pushing the plate of fish closer to Izuku. “Take a bite!”

Izuku cut off a neat chunk, eyes going wide when he put it in his mouth. Sure enough, it had the tang of vinegar, and a hint of saltiness, but also a flaky texture and a savoury taste unlike any vegetable he’d eaten.

“Wow!” he said, reaching for another bite. “That’s delicious, Rikido!”

“I’m glad!” Rikido grinned. “Eat as much as you want! I’m gonna try your salad.”

“Please do!”

Mina and Rikido stabbed a fork each into the bowl, making sure to get a bit of everything on them, and Izuku watched in delight as they bit down.

“That combination is delicious,” Rikido said, picking up another lettuce leaf to take a bite of it alone. “The lettuce makes such a good, crunchy base, and the tomato and cheese add so much flavour – it’s a delicious combination!”

Between the three of them, they quickly finished off the meal, and Izuku smiled to himself as he glanced over at his bucket of ingredients. He was almost out of fresh stuff, he'd soon be down to just his jars of cheese and soup, but he still had a few slightly-wilted things left behind that were worth eating.

“Could we try cooking together, do you think?” Izuku asked, a little shyly. “I’d love to show you some of our other experiments, with what I have here.”

“That sounds great!” Rikido agreed immediately. “Stick around, we’ll do some cooking and Mina can let us know as any customers come in. Do you need a place to stay tonight?”

“Oh, I have a tent!” Izuku assured him, pointing at the bundle resting atop his backpack. “I was just gonna find a spot to post up where I’m out of the way!”

“You can use the old farm if you like,” Rikido offered. “The buildings have fallen into disrepair but there’s plenty of space for a tent, and it’s only a short walk from the coffee trees, if you want to plant crops.”

“Really? That would be great! I wouldn’t be taking it away from someone else?”

“Nope, it belongs to me.” Rikido shrugged. “Stay there as long as you like, and do whatever you want with the place. It’ll keep you safe from the tides, that’s the main thing.”

“The tides?”

“You notice all our houses are in a big, long line?” Mina asked, gesturing to the room around them, and the buildings beyond the windows. “When the tides come in, anything built further down the beach will get washed out to sea; the highest it’s ever gotten is a couple of metres down from here, and that only happened once, so if we build along the edge here near the forest, we don’t run any risks of water damage.”

“Oh, that’s so clever. We learned about tides at school, but I didn’t think about it when I got here!”

“It’s something we take for granted, growing up here, but once in a while a new trader will start setting up their stuff halfway down the beach, and we have to run down there and move them back in a hurry! Did you want to head over to the farm now and get set up before you cook?”

“If that’s okay,” Izuku said. “It’d be good to know where it is and have my stuff ready before dark.”

“I’ll walk you over,” Mina said, still smiling warmly. “I’ll be back before the dinner rush, Rikido!”

“Take your time. I’ll see you later on Izuku, just come by again whenever you’ve settled in.”

“Thank you!”

Izuku began picking up his belongings, but Mina insisted on carrying his tent pack for him, slinging it over her shoulder easily. Izuku left his bucket of food behind, but took the empty ones with him, to get to work bright and early at the little patch he’d been offered. He was gonna need to find a fresh water source nearby, too, for drinking and cleaning and watering his plants with.

The sand shifted beneath his feet, and Izuku found himself walking a lot slower than usual, struggling to keep solid footing. Mina seemed unphased by the sand, but she slowed her pace knowingly to stay at his side, and he felt a wave of affection for the young woman. Everything about her was so bright and welcoming, and he hoped they’d become fast friends.

“Here it is!” she announced.

Beyond the row of houses stood a little plot of land, right on the edge of the forest. The ground was a little more solid than the rest of the beach, but still incredibly sandy, and Izuku wondered how far into the trees he had to go before it turned into proper soil.

“The coffee trees are up that path,” Mina told him, pointing at the little trail that quickly disappeared into the forest. “I come through here pretty often to harvest them, but otherwise you’ll be undisturbed up here. The wharf for the fishing boats is at the other end of the beach, and there aren’t many people living out this far.”

“It looks perfect!” Izuku shot her a big smile, shifting his bag a little to prepare to take it off again. “I’ll get my tent set up, then come right back to cook!”

“Sounds like a plan. And if you’re awake, I’ll take you with me in the morning to check out the trees!”

“I’ll be there,” Izuku promised.

He leaned his backpack against a run-down building, only a beat-up floor and some remnants of walls left behind. The roof had caved in what looked like a long time ago, but thankfully Izuku had his trusty tent, like always. The occasional night indoors, at Kouji’s or Mirio’s or back home, had been nice, but his tent really had become his second home, despite the occasional back pain.

Thankfully, Tsuricho seemed to be the hottest town he’d ever visited. He’d been sweating ever since he got close, only magnified when he’d hit the sand; he was gonna have to dig out some shorts, now that he was out of the forest, where he'd run the risk of scratching his legs up.

“I’ll see you soon!” Mina grinned, waving goodbye as she headed back toward Rikido’s cafe. “Take as long as you need, there’s no rush!”

He waved back, then got straight to work, opening up the tent that Mina had kindly carried across for him. He pumped it up in a spot that looked like it might get some shade from the house, at some point in the day, then opened up all the little vents Mei had shown him, when she’d first built it. Parts of the roof were made with a fine mesh material that Izuku knew she must have spent hours crafting in her lab, but they came with flaps of a thicker fabric to cover them up, when he didn’t need the airflow. In Tsuricho, he suspected he was going to need all the ventilation he could get, so he tied the fabric out of the way, keeping the vents wide open, and rolled the door up to match, tying it open to keep the air moving through. Despite the door being tall enough for him to walk straight in, for the most part he’d kept the little fabric door partially closed, crawling through the flap instead of moving it properly. In the heat, though, he was grateful for all the extra space it afforded him.

His bed was next, unfolded and laid out within, his sleeping bag stuffed with all the straw, hay, and wool that Eri and the other townspeople had collected for him. It made the tent a little bulkier to carry, sure, but the amount of comfort he’d gotten out of even a little padding had been enormous. He laid out all his blankets on top, too – starting with the worn out ones he’d picked up for cheap and mostly used to pad out his food bundles, to keep the jars from clinking together, then finishing with his nicest, warmest ones on the top. He didn’t think he’d need blankets during the night, so they could give him that little bit more comfort, again, and he was sure he’d have a good night of sleep with all the layers beneath him.

His next project was supposed to be water, but he didn’t see an obvious source anywhere close by. He suspected there was something up by the coffee trees, if they’d grown crops there before, but he wasn’t sure how far that trek was – Mina’s offer to escort him there made him fear it might be further than he expected. He did have a couple of jars still, from the last time he’d crossed a stream, which would at least keep him from going thirsty, but he was gonna need a whole lot more if he planned on getting remotely clean any time soon.

Finally he opened up his backpack, unloading a few of his favourite or most-used items: his pyjamas for the night and a change of clothes to put on the next morning; his old satchel, still housing the book he referenced so often; his solar lamp, which he almost never let out of his sight; and his cooking gear – a single pot housing a fire starter, a mug, a plate, and a couple of utensils. He’d have to find some firewood before he’d be able to cook, but he suspected he’d be eating at Rikido’s that night anyway.

He started off toward the cafe again, then paused, doubling back to grab one of his buckets. It housed all his empty jars, most of which currently needed a good wash, but he hoped he’d be able to stop by a water source on his way back to the tent to fill them all up anyway.

The cafe was a lot busier when he returned – it seemed like everyone in town had shown up for dinner, but honestly, Izuku couldn’t blame them. Rikido’s food had been delicious, and the cafe was such a nice atmosphere in itself, plus if they were running low on food, it was probably a lot easier for Rikido to stretch it a long way rather than each individual family trying to make things work.

“We’re going heavy on the ceviche tonight, since it’s been a hot one!” Mina was telling someone, when Izuku slipped inside again. “Our visitor kindly gifted Rikido some vinegar, so he thought that’d be a great use for it. Or if you want something warm, we’re doing the coffee-rubbed grilled fish again, I know that’s always a hit with you!”

“You know me too well,” the older woman laughed. “I’ll go with the coffee one!”

“I’ll take the ceviche,” her dinner partner said. “Thanks, Mina.”

“My pleasure!”

She headed to the kitchen to let Rikido know, so Izuku followed, trying his best to act like he didn’t hear the whispers that floated by when he sneaked in. It was a small town, even smaller than Chimura, so everyone knew everyone else – which made Izuku the odd one out, and apparently the talk of the town.

“I’m back!” he squeaked, when he slid through the kitchen door. “Sorry to interrupt!”

“You’re not interrupting,” they both assured him.

“I was wondering, where do you guys get fresh water from?” Izuku asked. “I was gonna fill up some drinking water, but I wasn’t sure where to go – the forest?”

“There’s a stream by the coffee trees,” Mina offered. “But it’s about a ten minute walk from the farm. There’s also a little lake at the other side of town, near the wharf. We often go down there to wash in the summer, it’s pleasantly warm from the sun in the evenings. But you’re also welcome to fill up here!”

“We fill up the barrels regularly,” Rikido explained, gesturing toward the basin Izuku had washed lettuce in earlier. “There’s plenty there, so take whatever you need.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to waste your water!”

“It’s not a waste,” Rikido assured him. “There are people who earn their living on filling water barrels for everyone’s home, so the more water we use, the more they earn their keep! I think I’m due for a refill the day after tomorrow, and I haven’t even emptied one yet, so please, use whatever you want.”

“Are you really sure?” Izuku asked, smiling nervously. “I was hoping to wash my jars, but if that’s too much–”

“Not at all! I’ll have plenty of dishes to do later, so just add them to the pile and we can do it all at once. We’ve got a kid who comes in after dinner to help.”

“You’re really good at finding work for the community,” Izuku said, smiling softly. “That’s really cool of you.”

“Gotta keep everyone fed somehow!” Rikido said, nodding. “No one likes accepting hand-outs, it’s much easier to pay them to do a job for me, then let them use that money to support themselves.”

“I respect that! Do you think people would help me out like that, too? If I wanted someone to bring a water barrel to my tent, or something?”

“Absolutely, I can introduce you to the right people. Just let me know whatever you need, and I’ll be able to find someone.”

“I’ll start making a list!” Izuku grinned. “Now, what’s this ceviche I’ve been hearing about?”

Together they settled in to cook, Rikido teaching Izuku all about how to prepare the fish, while Izuku enthusiastically shoved vegetables into his hands to help – his tomatoes, for instance, wilted as they were, went perfectly with the vinegared ceviche. He diced them up nice and small, just like the fish, and mixed them in. Not only did it look much prettier with an extra colour in there, but it stretched their fish stocks further, and let their friends try new foods!

“They’re all asking about you,” Mina told Izuku, when she came back with a stack of dirty plates. “They were shocked by the tomatoes, so I explained! You’ll be making some new friends tomorrow, when we’ve all got some time to chat!”

“Did they like them?”

“They loved them. You’re gonna have to teach me how to grow tomatoes!”

“I’ll do my best!”

Patrons began to trickle out for the night, and a young boy came crashing through the door to help clean up, just like Rikido had promised. Izuku slipped him an extra coin, when Rikido handed him a couple to do the dishes, nodding toward his glass jars on the counter, and the boy just smiled and accepted, setting to work without a word. A little girl showed up too, a few years younger even than their dishwasher, fetching a cloth and a jar from under the sink and setting to work wiping down tables.

“They’re my friend’s younger siblings,” Mina explained, when she saw Izuku looking. “They’re always happy to help out for some pocket money! Anyway, look, I have some coffee cherries here, let me show you how this works!”

She pulled out a bowl of fruit that looked a lot like the cherries back in Chimura, but when she pried one open, there was a big seed on the inside, where he was used to seeing pits.

“This is the coffee bean we use for the drink,” she explained, setting the flesh aside and wiping the bean off with a cloth. “We dry them out in the sun for a while, then grind them up, and mix them with hot water to make our coffee!”

“Is the fruit edible too?”

“It is! There’s not much fruit to it though, it’s mostly skin.” Mina handed him a piece, and Izuku inspected it carefully. “You can kind of suck the fruity bit off it, but usually we simmer a bunch of them in some water and make a kind of fruity liquid, which sets when it cools down, and you can eat it with a spoon. The kids love it.”

“Oh, that sounds so cool!”

“But give it a lick, see how it tastes!”

Feeling a little embarrassed about it, but curious all the same, Izuku licked the piece of coffee cherry. It tasted pretty good, on the whole: a little sweet, and very fresh. It didn’t compare to a proper cherry, though, and Izuku could see why it might be too much effort to eat it as it was.

“You can also dry them out and make a tea from them,” Rikido offered. “We do that to the ones without much flesh, like when they’re out of season and don’t grow as big.”

“That’s cool!”

“What about you, what do you do with your vegetables if they go bad?”

“Well, most of them just start to rot, so I can’t do anything exciting,” Izuku said sheepishly. “But when they rot, it’s good for the soil, so we bury a lot of our food scraps to help feed the soil.”

“Feed the soil?”

“Yeah! It’s called fertilising, technically. I don’t know much about it, just that a lot of people use their waste products to make the soil better. I think maybe that’s why our crops don’t grow so well, anymore. When our ancestors made all these little towns, they were eating every scrap of food they could get, so the soil didn’t get to eat much anymore. The soil in Chimura got much healthier when we started paying more attention to it, and now it grows more abundant crops, so we have more leftovers in turn. All the kids from the school bring their families’ scraps to bury, and uh... have you heard the word manure before?”

“I haven’t,” Mina said, shaking her head. “Rikido?”

“I don’t think so.”

“It’s, uh... animal poop,” Izuku admitted, cringing. “For some reason it’s really good for the soil, even if it sounds gross. So we starting using the animal waste for the soil, too, and that doesn’t even take food out of the economy, so it works really well.”

“We don’t have a lot of animals around here, unfortunately,” Mina lamented. “And the traders would probably never come back again if we asked them to get us poop.”

The boy at the sink snickered to himself, and Izuku couldn’t help but crack a smile. Eri had found it hilarious too, once upon a time, so he didn’t blame this kid for having a good laugh about it, too.

“I’m Izuku, by the way,” he called over, watching the boy’s head whip around. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Samidare,” he answered. “You want me to bring you poop?”

“He doesn’t want human poop,” Mina said, before Izuku could respond. “Don’t go pooping in a bucket, I’m watching you.”

Samidare snickered again, and Izuku cracked another smile.

“Feel free to bring me any food scraps you find, though,” he offered. “If you have something that goes bad, I’ll gladly take it off your hands.”

“Got it!”

By the time everything was eaten and cleaned up, and Izuku’s water was jarred and bucketed, the breeze outside was getting surprisingly strong on the beach. No one else seemed concerned about it, but as Izuku hurried to his tent by lantern light, he found himself shivering. How on earth had it gone from stinking hot to freezing cold in such an instant?

He left his water and food outside the tent to stay cool overnight, but quickly covered up all his tent flaps before he headed in, locking the door down tightly and crawling in under his top layers of blankets – it was a good thing he’d laid them out rather than leave them in his bag, he’d have kicked himself if he’d had to dig them out of his bag in the cold and the dark.

He hung his lantern from the roof of the tent, wiggling into his pyjamas under the cover of blankets, his teeth only ceasing their chattering once he’d pulled the blankets up over his head, using his own breath to warm the bed up quicker. No one had warned him about the sudden drop in temperature at night, which a tiny part of him felt bitter about, but he supposed they hadn’t known any better – Tsuricho was where they lived, the environment they’d grown up in; it probably went without saying, in their minds, that nights were cold.

Really, it was himself he was cursing, for not thinking to ask more questions about the town.

Finally warming up, Izuku reached to shut off his lantern, breathing a long sigh of relief as he curled up under his blankets and settled in to get some rest.

He hoped his friends back in Chimura were nice and warm, too.

[Chapter 12]