[Short Story (Fantasy)] Hot Pot is Best with Bird, 2500 characters

[HL: Waking up to my wife's voice, a delicious aroma is drifting in. Is it hot pot today?]

"It's time to wake up, Yoshihiro-san."
"Hmm..."

When I tossed and turned in the futon, a wonderful scent wafted over. It was a nostalgic scent, reminiscent of my hometown. It was the smell of the chicken hot pot my family used to make, simmering bird bones for hours. But when Michi makes it, the taste is always a little different. That's delicious in its own right, so I have no complaints. But my head is pounding. Maybe I have a hangover. My throat is parched and stinging, and my head is throbbing. Did I drink that much? Did I even drink? My memory is hazy. I rarely drink enough to lose my memory, though.
"Michi, sorry, just five more minutes."
"Oh, you're always like this. Please wake up in five minutes, really."
"Yeah."
This warm, cozy futon feels so good.
Hmm?
Wait?
Something is strange. For a hangover, my stomach doesn't feel nauseous. But my whole body feels heavy and sluggish. If anything, it's starting to feel like muscle pain. And as I rolled around changing positions, I noticed my left shoulder was incredibly sore. Did I bump into a wall or a telephone pole while drunk?

"Michi, my body feels all creaky."
"Well, you're not that young anymore. That's what happens when you insist on following us."
Insist on following? I remember Michi likes mountain climbing. We used to climb together often, but lately, my physical strength has declined significantly, so we haven't climbed together much. My job is administrative, so it can't be helped, I suppose.
"The mountain?"
"Yes. You climbed quite a bit yesterday, didn't you?"
"Did I? My body hurts."
"That's why I told you not to come."
"But I was worried about you."
Worried? Even as I say it, it doesn't quite click. I feel like I was worried, but Michi is much more used to the mountains than I am. Even though she's just over 50 like me, she's very young. My head still feels like it's covered in fog. I heard the clatter of dishes being set out. I have to get up soon.

"Heave-ho."
I gathered my strength to sit up, thinking it might hurt more, but it wasn't that bad. It just felt like my whole body was strained, a strange, dull sensation. On the low table in front of me, an earthenware pot had just been placed on the usual trivet.
"Oh my? You shouldn't get up so quickly, you haven't healed yet."
I was confused by Michi's reaction as she rushed over.
"Did I get injured?"
"Ah, you're feeling groggy because of the medicine, aren't you?"
"Medicine?"
"Yes. Slowly, slowly. The wound will open up. More importantly, let's eat? It's good for your vitality."
I sat up and was confused by the pot in front of me. The chicken hot pot, which should have been white and cloudy, was somehow greenish.
"W-wait a minute. Why is it green?"
"Because it's mixed with medicinal herbs."
Medicinal herbs? Is it medicinal cuisine or something? Come to think of it, Michi often brings back wild plants from the mountains to make tempura or dressed dishes. But surely she wouldn't put them in a hot pot.

"Shall I feed you, if you'd like?"
"No, I'll eat."
That would be embarrassing, after all.
I was handed a bowl filled with the green broth and cautiously brought it to my nose. As I did, the rich, savory aroma of rice and chicken bones boiled down rose into my nasal cavity along with the warm steam. I sniffed it again, but I didn't feel the grassy smell I had imagined. And when I cautiously took a mouthful, the slightly hot broth was thoroughly infused with the chicken's umami, and when I bit into the meat, it fell off the bone easily, yet it seemed to dance in my mouth when I chewed it.
"This is good chicken."
"Of course it is. It's top-grade."
Wait? It really seems to be dancing. When I rolled the meat around in my mouth, it moved left and right as if resisting. What is this? And the moment I was kicked by the meat in my mouth, my field of vision shifted up and down. To be precise, it was as if there was a step between my right and left eyes, like falling off a cliff. Or rather, I thought I had fallen, but for some reason, I was still sitting.
"Oh, no, no. The wound will open."
"Where was I injured?"
"Oh. You don't remember that either? It can't be helped, I suppose. I wonder if it's no good when the brain is split in two?"
"T-the brain?"

Michi chanted words I had never heard before. It was like a spell. As I was thinking that, light filled Michi's palms, and with a shout of "Ei!", she grabbed both sides of my face, around my ears, and forcibly pressed them down, returning my left and right vision to normal.
I froze, wondering what on earth had happened.
"W-what do you mean by brain?"
"You really don't remember? It's different from when you were split in two at the torso, isn't it?"
Michi's expression hadn't changed from her usual one, but I couldn't understand the meaning of what she was saying at all.
"You, you were split in two from the head by an ogre with a large axe today."
"Huh? Ogre? What are you..."
"Is your memory disconnected or something?"
Saying "It can't be helped," Michi took a mirror out of her accessory case and handed it to me. When I peered into it, there was a line right down the middle of my face. Split in two? You've got to be kidding.
"It seems you get groggy when your head is hit, after all. I'll fix it forcibly, so please bear with it."
And so, to me, who was stunned, Michi chanted some spell again. Then, strength rapidly drained from my body. A terrible fatigue, like after a full-speed sprint, attacked me. As my energy was consumed and the misalignment of my brain was fully corrected, my memory returned with a terrifying, intense pain.

That's right, I had transferred to another world and was dying while stumbling around, when my wife Michi somehow followed me, and for some reason became a Demon King or a Great Archmage or something, and we started living together again. This familiar house was also forcibly built by Michi's mysterious magic. That's why the area outside this house was like a swamp of deadly poison.
"I remembered. Sorry, Michi. For following you. I was worried because you said you were going to defeat an Ancient Dragon."
"It's fine. I can usually protect you, but today the pollen was a bit bad and I let my guard down, I'm sorry. Now, recovering your strength is more important than the hot pot. Please get some rest. You'll be fine by tomorrow. Let's have the hot pot as rice porridge tomorrow."
Exhausted by the forced recovery of my strength, I lay down obediently. That green stuff must have been World Tree leaves or something. And that chicken meat that was jumping in my mouth, I'm starting to think it was a phoenix. Somehow, even after coming to another world, I'm still under Michi's thumb.

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