WONDERLAND

three. "war waits for no woman."

"IT'S A TIE! FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TOTSUKI HISTORY, THERE HAS BEEN A TIE OF ONE HUNDRED POINTS IN THE AUTUMN ELECTION!"

"WE WILL NOW WELCOME MAHIRU TETSUYA AND EISHI TSUKASA!"

Apron cloths fluttered as the two most feared of the first years step into the arena. One side, the notoriously elusive Tetsuya Empire heir stands, dark hair glistening and gold eyes cutting. On the other side was the figure of the infamous 'teacher killer' Eishi Tsukasa, looking almost otherworldly with his pale hair and lilac eyes.

"STEP INTO THE CENTRE!" Senzaemon Nakiri roared.

Golden eyes chill, distaste bloom in violet irises.

They move at the same time, same brisk paces that place them beside the headmaster at the same time. Hands shake. They turn and leave the same way they arrive. The audience has fallen silent, they had expected a confrontation. 

But there was none: neither of them was callous enough to display the frustrations out in the open. The fated confrontation happens beyond the walls, beyond the ears and eyes. Almost as if it was the illicit affair of two forbidden lovers.

"Do understand that when I win, it will not be the pen or words or opinions of another person. It will be through your own mouth and by your own heart when you acknowledge that my cooking is far superior to yours, Eishi Tsukasa."

"I don't expect any less, Mahiru Tetsuya."

"Before you lose to me, you will not admit defeat to anyone else."

"Of course."

The ice in golden eyes turns to rapturous embers and the distaste in violet irises blooms into burning suns. 

That is the first battle of the famous power couple of Totsuki.

%%%

"Ara," Mahiru leans against the door, the high-class distaste clear on her face, "what's this, a high school reunion?"

"Geh," Kojiro Shinomiya turns away with a look of pure hatred and swirls his tea moodily while Joichiro Saiba waves at her cheerfully.

"Mahiru~" he called, gesturing for her to come over, "Come give a hug to your godfather."

"With my heels?" She tucked a hand under her chin, taking a seat by the counter. 

"My, so mean. Maybe I should drop by Shiro's some time and update him on ways on how to teach you about being a proper human being." her godfather cackled drunkenly.

If only you had done so six years ago, then maybe everything would be different now. Why did you do nothing?

"Well, now that all of us are here, what do we do?" Shinomiya drawled, moodier than all of them on their worse days combined. Kojirou Shinomiya on the best of his days was little less than a migraine, on his worse, he was a straight up stick-in-the-ass.

"Oh, oh!" Kuga chirped. "I have an idea! We should ask Mahiru-chin to hire the yakuza and the black ops from overseas and just pew-pew new-headmaster-sama!" he crowed, making gun-shooting motions with his hands along with sound effects.

"Oh, that's a great idea. Why don't we blast you to the moon, too, while we're at it, midget?" Shinomiya hissed.

Kuga explodes, slamming his sake— wait, sake?— on the table, he began to yell at the top of his lungs, "Oh, so you think you're so great because you're tall? Sa, why haven't you gotten you Michelin Stars yet, senpai, huh?" Kuga jumps around eyes wide with murderous intent and his voice hysterical and cracked.