Waifu Wars: A Food Wars Fanfic

Ch. 44 Stay Out of the Basement

Armed with flashlights and false confidence, the team was set to enter the depths of Polaris. After opening the old-fashioned cellar door, located in one of the back rooms on the first floor, Torrey, Ryoko, Marui, and Soma descended into the darkness. The wooden staircase shook with every step, and gave a series of unsettling creaks.

The steps seemed to go on and on; was it even possible for the basement to be this far below the building? Eventually they touched down on the damp, unstable floor. Calling this room a basement was very misleading. It was more like a dungeon, or a large underground storage space.

Everyone shone their flashlights around, trying to gather their bearings and to get a better sense of the layout. Like the journey down the stairs, this too seemed to take forever; nobody knew where to start, and nobody wanted to begin.

As if the darkness and the damp floor weren't enough, the space was unbearably cold. They might as well have been standing outside in the storm.

Cobwebs hung from the ceiling to the floor, in nearly every direction. The ground was littered with dusty kitchen appliances and old, deformed utensils that needed more than a good cleaning to be returned to a working condition. Makeshift rooms were created throughout the space with walls of rotting, decayed wood.

"Wow, look at all this cool stuff!" said Soma, crouching down to take a better look at an old Radarange model microwave oven, the first to be made commercially available to the public. He brushed off some of the dirt to admire the vintage piece of equipment.

"Soma! You shouldn't touch that. Who knows how long it's been down here," said Ryoko.

"This place is kinda depressing," said Torrey. "It's like a graveyard for old cookware. Except nobody bothered to bury the dead."

"I can't believe that things are so disorganized down here," said Marui, pushing up his glasses smartly. "Electrical waste needs to be properly disposed of, not buried beneath our living quarters. This could have negative implications on the soil quality around the dorm."

"Shoot, that sounds like bad news for Tadokoro and Isshiki-Senpais' garden," said Soma.

"We should gather the rest of the crew and spend a weekend cleaning this place out. Most of that wood needs replacing, too," suggested Torrey.

"Don't feel obligated! It's not something that you should worry about," said Ryoko, waving her hands.

"Honestly, I still feel like this is my home. Even though I don't live here anymore, I'd like to help out. I'm kind of attached to the place."

"Geez, don't get all sentimental about it!" said Soma. "Although, the help would be nice. Maybe we can get some of this stuff cleaned off and..."

"Oh no. He's like a kid in a candy store. A dark, dirty candy store that went out of business half a century ago," said Ryoko, shaking her head.

"I'm all for economic efficiency, but most of this appears to be beyond saving. In any event, we should return our focus to the task at hand," said Marui.

"Our refrigerated goods won't last more than a few hours before they start to turn. But for all we know, the power could come back on in the next few minutes, even without the backup generator online," said Torrey.

"Why don't we split up to cover more ground? This place is huge," said Ryoko, sensing an opportunity.

"Great idea, Sakaki! I'll take Waldenpond, and you can go with Marui to..." started Soma.