There was excitement at St Marie Academy; the finals of the cake Grand Prix were going to start soon. Ichigo was having tea with Team C. "How do you feel Ichigo?" asked Rumi. "Well I must admit I do feel a bit nervous," said Ichigo "because this time I'll be going against the high school students". "You'll do great," said Rumi. Ichigo and Team C were eating cookies but Kana pointed out that they were organic cookies. That meant they were healthy cookies. Kana also told Ichigo about a team called Team Tachibana who made organic and non-artificial sweets. "Wow those sorts of sweets are great for those who are trying to diet," said Ichigo.
Later on the chairman showed the results of what team was going against who in the first round of the finals. There were eight matches to go through the first round and only three rounds to go till the final round. Team Ichigo was against Team Tachibana. The team that had to face Team Tennouji was a team called Team Hayashida. "I'm not surprised that Kyouko Hayashida is going against Tennouji sempai" said Sennosuke. "Who's Kyouko Hayashida?" asked Ichigo. "Kyouko Hayashida is a high school student, the same age as Tennouji sempai," said Satsuki "and she is a rival of Tennouji sempai. In fact, she has gone against sempai in cake competitions a lot of time but always comes second". "And she still tries to defeat sempai" finished Sennosuke. Ichigo thought that Kyouko Hayashida must be pretty tough to want to keep on trying to defeat Tennouji sempai. The chairman told everyone that the theme is time was elegance.
Now it was time for Team Ichigo to think about what to do for the round. "Whenever I hear the word elegance, I always think of women wearing kimonos," said Ichigo "especially when a long time ago women in Japan always made a fuss with what kimono to wear when they tried to get a rich handsome husband, mainly the emperors of Japan". "My thoughts exactly Ichigo-chan," said Satsuki "it also makes me think of my favorite story Genji Monogatari. Genji always reminds me of myself". "Using the elegance from the Heian period isn't a bad idea" said Makato. The Heian period in Japan was from 794 AD to 1185 AD.
So while Team Ichigo started to plan and work on what they were going to do, the spirits went to see what the other teams were going to do. Team Tachibana was going to work with organic sweets like they always did. Team Hayashida was looking through all sorts of elegance there was. "I must find an elegance that will beat Tennouji" said Kyouko. She was willing to defeat Mari this time. As for Team Tennouji, instead of working on any creations, they were more like watching old plays and looking at old arts. "It doesn't look like they are doing anything" said Caramel. "They aren't taking it seriously" agreed with Chocolat. What the spirits didn't realize was Team Tennouji was looking up how professionals showed elegance properly for their creation.
It was soon the day of the first round matches and Team Ichigo was up against Team Tachibana. Makato and Satsuki were working on chocolate and hard candy as usual. Ichigo and Sennosuke were working on the cake. Team Tachibana was now doing their performance by cutting ground purple sweet potatoes, lingonberries and jasmines with big knives. Next Makato started making some branches out of chocolate and Sennosuke was making a sort of flower bowl-shaped cake and Ichigo and Satsuki were making flowers out of candy. Team Tachibana was making a cake and making feathers out of candy. Next Makato and Ichigo placed everything Team Ichigo made on a tray and onto the floor. Satsuki was doing the performance part and he did a performance with flower arranging with the candy flowers and chocolate branches. Team Ichigo made a cake of flowers in a flower bowl and Team Tachibana made a peacock cake.
Once the time was up it was now time for judging, but then a disaster happened. Team Tachibana's cake began to fall apart because the feathers they made were too heavy for the cake base. This didn't go well for Team Tachibana; it made them lose points. This round became Team Ichigo's win as they had 483 points while Team Tachibana had 368 points. Ichigo felt sorry for Team Tachibana, but Azuki Tachibana told Ichigo it was all right and it was their fault it happened because they were so eager to win this round. "We're better at making simple sweets than showy cakes". Ichigo still felt sorry for Team Tachibana.
After the round was over Team Ichigo went to go and watch the match between Team Tennouji and Team Hayashida. Mari Tennouji had three boys on her team; a grey-haired boy named Ryou, a blue-haired boy named Rui and a brown-haired boy named Reiji. Kyouko Hayashida had three girls on her team. They were triplet sisters and they were called Hisa, Kiwa and Miya Yoshinari. 'I will defeat you this time Tennouji' thought Kyouko.
There were great sweets making going on with both Team Tennouji and Team Hayashida. Team Tennouji was sort of performing while making their sweets and Team Hayashida was making their sweets gracefully as if they were elegant Japanese princesses. Ichigo couldn't get her eyes off Mari; Mari was making her sweets without breaking a sweat, and with no hesitation, especially when she used a paintbrush in her work. In the end Team Hayashida made a sweets figure of a Japanese empress and Team Tennouji made a sweets figure of a celestial maiden. Both Team Tennouji and Team Hayashida did brilliantly in this round.
After all the testing and examination, Team Hayashida got 477 and Team Tennouji got 478. So Team Tennouji won by one point. Kyouko wasn't happy to have been beaten by Mari again, but she vowed to defeat her in the next grand pix.
"Kyouko Hayashida certainly has become talented at making sweets as Tennouji-sempai," said Sennosuke "but she still cannot keep up with sempai yet". Ichigo thought that Mari was indeed wonderful at making sweets, and the fact that her team would have to face Team Tennouji sometime in the cake grand Prix made her feel nervous.
The end
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