BiTTER (Shokugeki no Souma Fanfic)

6. Past and Present Pursuits

"He really said that to you?"

Grandma Kiyo picked up her cup of tea, taking careful sips.

"Well... why not, then?"

Fumi spat out his tea, choking and spluttering all over his sleeve while Kiyo watched, holding out a handkerchief for him.

Finally, Fumi yelped, "seriously?"

Grandma Kiyo placed her cup of tea on the table, breathing out a soothed sigh. Nothing like a cup of tea after a long day...

"But," Fumi began to wipe down the table, staring at Grandma Kiyo like she'd just swallowed a frog or something, "if I do, I won't be able to work at the bakery... and it's not like I can burden you with all the baking in the early hours again..."

"Nonsense, Fumi, you may call me a Grandma but I'm not that old yet! I'm still in my late forties!"

"There are people who retire around that age, Grandma."

"Well, in a year or two you'll have to head out anyways," she assured him with a smile, "you seem to have little interest in your studies, so there isn't much of a point to stick to the local junior high school... if you truly want to take over the bakery when you're older, you should learn to make them professionally."

-

"And... so she said."

The shrine was quiet. It always was.

Sitting on the steps, feeling the breeze that was as chilly as the evening winds should be-- he breathed in the vaguely ash-scented air and listened to the chime of the shrine bells as the gale rocked them.

"That sounds interesting, doesn't it?" Tamako hung around the offering box--she is not supposed to be sitting on it, Fumi thought grimly, but didn't point it out.

(Oh shrine god, if you must give her a curse, please don't make her cooking worse.)

"Hey, you want to be a-- uh, what was that thing? Patty? Hamburger?"

"Patissier?"

"That, yeah," Tamako hopped off the offering box and settled down beside Fumi on the steps. "There's only so much Dad and Grandma Kiyo can teach you, and there's little you can do now without your sense of taste."

Ah, that was true. He'd even asked Jouichirou to teach him cooking... but Jouichirou could only be in Japan perhaps a few times a year. Fumi would learn too little.

But he was still ten... did he really have to rush this decision?

(Did he even still deserve the liberty of this decision?)

"I don't think I should be saying this, since I almost dropped out of school..." Tamako put a hand on his head, "but I think you should go and learn all you need from the teachers in a proper cooking school."

-

He took a bite of the strawberry shortcake. The gentle sponge, the frothy whipped cream, and the crisp strawberries.