The Expert Among the Chefs | Yukihira Souma

Challenged

"I look forward to working with you, Nakiri-sama."  Kinokuni said formally.  Despite her thoughts of "sama?," Sakura nodded and said the same. 

"That girl, Nakiri Sakura, is really interesting."  Eizan muttered to himself. "It's time to get Mimasaka Subaru."

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Today was the second day of her teaching, and it would be her first class with Soma.  It would be her first chance to see how well Joichiro had taught him.  She had heard of the honey-salt incident through Chapelle-sensei and hoped to see his flexible skills. 

She couldn't anticipate it.  She had to guarantee that he would be poisoned. 

So here Sakura was, right before class, getting a student to to do the job for her.  The boy's name was Fujumi Rarota and he was one of the two who actually sabotaged Soma's dish the other day.  Disgusted with his actions, Sakura knew that his hatred for Soma would make him faithful to her requests. 

Everybody was deathly silent. 

There were two cooking stations that were not filled up and the other students already pitied the two, Tadokoro Megumi and Yukihira Soma, to what would be their punishments. 

Finally, Soma entered the classroom boldly with Tadokoro timidly following him.  "Um...sorry for our tardiness, Nakiri-sensei.  We had an accident."  Soma just yawned loudly and nodded his head. 

Sakura eyed them, stealing a glance at Fujumi who just nodded nastily one more time.  "I accept your alibi, Tadokoro-san.  However, seeing that you have thrown away precious time from my class, your actions will result in punishment that is yet to happen.  Otherwise, I will proceed with explaining today's lesson." 

There were many students at Totsuki and only a few could enter a class at a time.  All first years were to learn the same things but at different times.  So Sakura would be repeating the egg frittata episode again. 

"Okay, your first assignment today is to cook your very own recipe of this simple egg frittata." she wrote the standard recipe on the board. "Use any ingredients you want that the pantry provides. The time limit is 2 hours. When you're done I will test the dish and see whether it receives an A rating or not. Be aware that your introductory stance also decides whether or not you get a failing grade. You may begin!"

45 minutes into the cooking, Tadokoro and Soma were nearly done.  While Soma was busy inspecting the many different spices in the shelves (again), Tadokoro was working hard on her own frittata.  Sakura gave the subtlest nod to Fujumi who made sure nobody was looking and poured a generous amount of salt over Soma's yet-to-be-cooked frittata. 

When Soma saw all of the salt on his frittata, his eyes widened.  Fujumi was in their class again, and Soma knew what he had done. 

Sakura smirked.  "What will you do, Yukihira Soma?"  she whispered to herself. 

Of course, the first person to come up just HAD to be Matsuzaki Koichi's twin brother.  And of course, he just HAD to be as big-headed.  "The name's Matsuzaki Shoichi.  Taste the dish, it's guaranteed to be an A!" 

Matsuzaki Shoichi already failed the introduction.  Nonetheless, Sakura tasted a piece of his egg frittata. 

"Matsuzaki Shoichi." she announced.  "I cannot give you an E rating." Matsuzaki grinned proudly.  "However, I cannot give you an A, either." 

His grin faltered.  "What do you mean?" 

Sakura sighed.  She had had this discussion to many times with the previous students.  "The frittata is perfect, unlike your brother's.  However, you're too big-headed."