BiTTER (Shokugeki no Souma Fanfic)

23. Reason For and Reasons to Be.

The kitchen is clean. 

"Seriously, what the actual fuck," Shinomiya inspected the labels on the jars and packets, all spelling out how things taste and what to and not to put in which cake. "Sure it's weird to have someone like you in a culinary school, even weirder to have one that can make good food, but--"

Shinomiya trailed off.

Then, "--how the fuck do you make good food all the time? You even know how to improve and fine-tune flavours accordingly. Now that I think about it," and all of a sudden, the entire gravity of the revelation sank on him. "That makes no sense."

Oh no. Oh no.

"Yeah, I uh, had my taste before I lost it," he said, "but I still remember how things were... used to taste," yeah that was bullshit. "I just go with the flow, alright? People like things that taste like this, so I just guess the rest of my way based on what I think they used to taste like..."

"That makes no sense, how long ago was that?"

"...a couple years? Long time."

"If it was a long time ago, how do you still remember everything and how to match tastes? What are you, god's flavour profile?" Shinomiya challenges, "you were a kid back then, you're telling me your kid palate is making better dishes every day?"

Eda wanted, with all of his heart, to throw a microwave in his face.

He grabs the flour instead.

"Oh enough hounding me! I can do it because I can!" he snapped, and the bag of flour plunged right into Shinomiya's face, exploding in a cloud of white powder. "So what if I need people to taste test everything I do? What if I fail every ingredients class because I can't fucking tell if shit's rotten before putting it in my pot? Try beating me in a cooking battle and maybe you can talk!"

"Why you--!!" Shinomiya grabs the nearest object-- a roll of parchment paper-- and chucked it in Eda's direction. "Of course it fucking matters in a damn kitchen! You need to tell the people around you so they damn well understand! It's common sense!"

"It's also common sense that--" a juice carton from the fridge breaks against an arm, "--if I tell the teachers they'll just expel me for being incompetent! Didn't you hear Chef Gonzales? Every chef for himself!"

"We all know Chef Gonzales talks out of his fucking ass! Listen to Chef Chapelle instead!"

"I don't wanna, he's fucking scary!"

"How is that a problem with your palate! Stop throwing things!"

"Put the fucking baking tray down!"

"I draw the line at fucking gelatin powder! This is gonna be hell to get out of my hair, you monster!"

"It's agar powder, there's a DIFFERENCE!"

"Who the fuck cares STOP THROWING IT!"

The kitchen door eventually opens, and Yukihira Tamako walks in to inspect the mess. There was half-done batter and eggs on the wall, some stuck to kitchen appliances and lots of tools everywhere-- and the two kids, who are half powder at this point, are still yelling at each other.

Neither of the kids even noticed her there. So she closed the door and stepped back out to shake her head at Grandma Kiyo.

"Looks like they'll take a while longer. Wanna drop by the candy store, Auntie?"