Of Yokai and Hopeless Romantics

Chapter 10

Benihime spent the rest of the weekend thinking about Shige, she could see now that there was more to him than she had seen at first glance. Benihime felt admiration towards Shige, she also wanted to stop some of his more self-destructive habits, but she still couldn't see herself with Shige. They had no chemistry, nothing in common, while she did not doubt he was a nice boy, who would never betray her, that was not enough. Benihime tried to think of what Shige was missing, why she just couldn't feel attracted to him. If she was honest with herself, at the start of the year if Shige had confessed to her, she would have accepted his feelings. What had changed her though, was Shoji, for better or worse, she had higher standards since Shoji. She didn't just want any boyfriend, she wanted what Shoji and Noriko had. Seeing how those two had transformed each other in the short time they had been a couple had set the bar for what Benihime wanted in a relationship. When she was with Keiji, she had just been happy to have a boyfriend and he had been happy to have her as a trophy, that was the sad truth she now understood. She would not make the mistake of settling again.

Benihime made her way to the student kitchen, she put away her romantic struggles for a while and focused on her cooking. The cooking competition would be coming up soon, she had to start to think of what she was going to cook. She had to come up with an appetizer, entree, and dessert. Whatever else was going on in her life, she was going to win that competition. Benihime bowed to Tugushi and got to her cooking station. Her eyes locked with Toro, as she walked towards her station, her senpai appeared to be in quite the competitive mood, giving her an intense look. In fact, several of the members seemed to be more focused.

" Next week I'm going to have you work on your menus for the competition, but this week I thought we'd do something you're all familiar with," Tugushi said. " We're going to be making hamburger steak. This was the first dish we made this year, so I thought it be a good way to see how you've improved."

The girls all got their mixture of ground beef and ground pork to make the steaks. Benihime started to mix the meats together with some breadcrumbs and seasoning. She had a light hand when it came to seasoning, she didn't want to overpower the taste of the meat. She formed her steaks, waited for the grill top to get up to eat and then put the steaks on top. Next, she started chopping up an onion, she placed half of the chopped onions in a pan and the other half she left in a bowl. After sweating the onions in a pan, she went ahead and made the gravy in the same pan. Once again she used a light hand when it came to seasoning. She tasted the gravy, it had the right depth of flavor, she had definitely improved over the last time she had made the dish. All the while she kept an eye on the steaks, watching how they changed in color, keeping an eye on the clock, she needed to be precise to get the cook just right. Finally, the steaks were cooked on both sides, the kitchen filled with the aroma of onions and grilled meat. Benihime put the dish together, plating the steaks, combining the raw and cooked onions in the gravy and pouring them on top of the steaks. She was careful while pouring the gravy, she didn't want to drown the meat or make a mess, the presentation was important. Benihime could already see herself as the host of her own cooking show, entertaining millions of people in Japan. She would start out as a Japanese star, but eventually, her cooking would become world famous.

The club finished up with their hamburger steaks, they all went around and tasted each others cooking, along with Tugushi's cooking. Everyone in the club had in fact improved, there wasn't a single hamburger steak that wasn't well made and tasty. When Benihime tasted Toro's she had to admit, that her senpai had surpassed not only her but also Tugushi.

" You look surprised, something wrong with the steak?" Toro asked.

" No it is perfect, I do not think you could improve upon it," Benihime said knowing that Toro already knew how good her dish was.