Chapter 3: Transfer Student's
Soma's POV:
The room was filled with silence when Senzaemon-sama finally made his appearance. We saw him smiling so wide it is a bit scary. He watched both of us with amusement in his eyes.
Senzaemon-sama is an elderly man, who has long spiky gray hair with a mustache and a beard. He also has a scar on his right eye running diagonally from the middle of his forehead down to just above his right cheekbone. Despite his advanced age, Senzaemon-sama is incredibly fit and muscular. Senzaemon-sama also has a very intense, intimidating look.
Senzaemon-sama is also a highly respected culinary expert in the world. He is currently the Director of Tootsuki Culinary Academy.
"Seems like you made your research, Yukihira Sumu and Yukihira Soma." He simply stated before the whole room was filled with booming laughter.
"Well, we are transferring properly, we have to properly do things too, right?" Su-chan and I replied at the same time.
Senzaemon-sama didn't reply, he just walked towards the dish we made and took a bite.
Another series of booming laughter was heard before we saw him reach down to his pocket and grabbed two printed papers. My picture, together with Su-chan's picture, were pasted on it with a "Fail" stamp. That was probably our final rating.
Makes me wonder how fast they printed that shit. Erina-sama was just here five minutes ago so how the fuck can they produce a paper with the results in those time frame.
'.... Are they just waiting around for the news so they can print it immediately?' I mused to myself.
However, Senzaemon-sama crushed those papers and threw them in the trash can that was placed beside the door.
"You both passed. You are now officially Tootsuki Academy's students." Senzaemon-sama declared as he made his way to the door and walked out.
Silence filled the room as we took our time processing the events that just happened.
"We passed right?" I wondered out loud.
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<2 days later>
Su-chan and I are currently inside a tent that was beside the platform where Senzaemon-sama is currently making his speech.
However, instead of listening, me and Su-chun are busy playing Minecraft.
"So-chan! I said I needed some torches! Not useless sticks!"
"Wait a minute Su-chan! I'm about to die here!"
"Just throw the stupid torch to me!"
"Oi! Who died and made you king?!"
Our bickering became more and more violent the more we played the game. Su-chan was trying shoving me out of my seat while I was trying to stomp on his feet.
"Finally, we'd like to introduce the only transfer students." We stood from our seats, still playing Minecraft, as we got on the platform.
"Hmm, sorry to be talking to y'all from up here" I hummed infront of the microphone without moving my gaze from my phone. The microphone also picking up the sound of my game.
"So we'll keep it short and sweet." Su-chan added as we stopped playing (read: he killed me cause I didn't give him torches and a creeper exploded his face. Karma's a bitch) and looked forward. That's when I saw a lot of bloodshot eyes looking at us.
"Just a couple sentences." And we smirked, earning even more glares and angry murmurs.
"He's Yukihira Soma." Su-chan announced while pointing at me.
"And he's Yukihira Sumu." I announced while pointing at Su-chan.
We immediately lowered our hands and placed them inside our pockets while continuing on what we were saying.
"To be honest, this academy's just a stepping stone for us!" Su-chan told them with a smug look on his face that probably mirrors mine.
"We weren't expecting to transfer here, but we don't plan on losing to folks who've never actually served customers." I mockingly added as I made several eye contacts with the crowd.
"Anyway, what we're getting at is basically, now that we're here." We both said as our expressions turned serious.
"We're gonna take the number one spot!" After announcing that to everyone, we walked away from the microphone and bowed our heads and yelled.
"Looking forward to being with y'all for the next three years!" We shouted with all the air in our lungs. We then pulled out our phones and entered the world of Mini Militia.
"You little..!!"
"Hey!"
"Im'ma kill you"
"Die!"
We heard those oh-so-beautiful messages that the whole student body is throwing at us as we walked down the stage. Entering another tent and sitting down.
"You saw them too right?" Su-chan asked me seriously. Eyes never leaving the gadgets that are in our hands.
"Yup." I replied while popping the 'p'.
"Ta-chan and I-chan are here." I replied with the same serious tone Su-chan used on me.
"Someone here knows."
We stopped talking to each other as we saw legs covered with stockings stop in front of us. We slowly removed our gazes from our phone and made eye contact with the owner of those legs, Nakiri Erina.
"Oh, fancy seeing you here, Erina-sama" Su-chan said before going back to playing.
Which is why he didn't see Nakiri's shocked expression.
"Yukihira Soma and Yukihira Sumu-kun. Why are you here?!" She wailed as she threw a tantrum at us.
"Why?" I paused my game and helped Su-chan with his, him taking control of the right side of the phone while I took control of the left side. We both dug our hands into our pockets and gave her two pieces of paper that has "Letter of Acceptance" printed on it.
"Wouldn't you come if you got an acceptance letter?" We both asked her without even looking at her.
"How?!" She asked back, shocked by what? We don't know.
"Shouldn't it be us asking why we got inside? You are one of the decision making body of this academy." We gave her a look that tell her just how much of an idiot she acts right now before looking back in our winning game.
She is probably embarrassed as she quickly changed the topic.
"I'll say one thing!" She then flipped her long ass hair.
"I haven't accepted you. Neither you both, nor your cooking." She stomped her left leg and faced her whole body towards us.
"This is a mistake! A mistake, okay? Taking the number one spot? Don't make me laugh!" She said as she let out a mocking laugh.
"Everyone who's been a student here since junior high has been learning cutting-edge gastronomy..." She continued on ranting, saying this and that about how we don't deserve to be here, blah blah, blah blah.
"Three years in junior high, hm?" Me and Su-chan stopped playing completely, we already won, and stared at her straight in the eye.
"So?" Erina abruptly stopped her rant as she heard us speak.
"I first held a kitchen knife at the age of three." I announced, voice filled with pride.
"And I started to learn very complicated cooking, which includes cutting-edge gastronomy, at the age of five." Su-chan added smugly.
"We've been practically living in the kitchen ever since we were brats." Our stare became a bit colder.
"Just sit down and watch Erina-sama." Su-chan's lips slowly curled up in a smile. I followed his lead and said.
"One of these days, we'll make you say our cooking is 'delicious'."
We then turned around and walked out, leaving Erina in her own devices as we got to our first class.
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"Today, you'll be cooking in groups of three with your cooking partners. Got it?" The instructor instructed us.
"Oh, Nice to meet you." Me and Su-chan greeted the blue haired girl that would be our partner.
The only problem is that she looks really really pale. I turned to Su-chan to help me ask what's wrong with her but he only pointed towards our surroundings, and that's when I realized how people glared at our group, or specifically, on me and Su-chan.
"Probably about our opening speech." I pointed out.
"... probably." Su-chan just shrugged.
The whispers were louder this time.
"Hey, look."
"It's the transfer students who were running their mouths off at the opening ceremony.
"They're all talk anyway."
I lightly clicked my tongue as I threw a look at our new partner.
"Ne, Tadokoro-san, was it?" I opened up first.
"Why're you writing the "man" character on your hand over and over?" I asked, honestly curious on what she is doing.
"Oh! Th-this is so that I won't get nervous." She replied with a shocked voice, probably shocked at the fact that I talked to her?
"Well, even if you're doing it you look pretty nervous to us." Su-chan's voice came from behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see that he was looking over the seasonings that were displayed on the shelves.
"Uh-huh, why are you nervous though?" I asked again.
"Well, uhmm, if I get even one more E rating I'll get expelled." She explained in a low voice while stammering.
"Huh... We heard this is an elite school." Su-chan and I looked at her crouched down figure. Su-chan wrapped his hands on my shoulder.
" But we guess even they have people like you." And we brightly smiled at her defeated form on the floor.
"Oh! I'm Yukihira Soma." I introduced myself to Tadokoro-san.
"And I'm Yukihira Sumu. Just Soma and Sumu is fine, though." We then wandered around to look at the ingredients.
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"Good morning, my young apprentis." An old man with a stern face, piercing blue eyes, and swept back blonde hair walked inside our classroom. He is wearing a standard white chef's uniform with a red neckerchief.
"Good morning." The students returned his greeting, everyone but the two red heads.
"Who's he Tadokoro-san?" Sumu asked Tadokoro that was in front of them.
"That's Roland Chapelle-sensei." Tadokoro aswered immediately.
"You become responsible for creating a delectable dish the moment you step into the kitchen. Neither experience nor status can excuse you from this duty." Chapelle-sensei said with a very serious face that made some of his students scared just by looking at him.
"In my class, any dish that fails to deserve an A rating will automatically receive an E rating. Remember that." Tadokoro-san became paler after that. Chapelle-sensei then proceeded on explaining what they would do today.
While he was saying those lines, Tadokoro-san told us pieces of information about Chapelle-sensei.
"His nickname is 'The Chef Who Never Smiles'" Tadokoro-san san ended her explanation that way.
"Hmm." I hummed lazily in reply as I finally decided to listen to what Sensei is saying.
"Today's menu item is Boeuf Bourguignon. It can be said as staple in French Cuisine, but I'll put the recipe up on the white board, anyway." He said as another student wrote the recipe on the white board.
"Two hours is your time limit." Sensei added.
"Huh, two hours is pretty long." Su-chan mumbled under his breath as he placed a hand under his chin.
"Start cooking!" Sensei said, and without further ado, all the students around us made their move.
"Hmm....do you know how to do that Su-chan?" I asked as I really had no idea what dish Boeuf Bourguignon is.
"We have read this once but we didn't have time to make it before coming here." Su-chan explained as he got a small note pad from his pocket.
"Soma-kun, Sumu-kun you've never made it before?" Todokori asked us with wide eyes full of disbelief.
"Well, as Su-chan said, we saw something like this before but we didn't have time to make it before coming here." I answered her the way Su-chan had answered me earlier.
"We'll try taking a look at the recipe. You can do what you wanna do." Su-chan said as he dragged me with him to the board.
After reading the recipe halfway through, I already have a clear image of how to make the dish and the dish itself.
"This is pretty easy Su-chan." I mumbled, just loud enough for Su-chan to hear, as I slowly backed away from the board.
"Yeah, we would need something though." And I don't need any more explanation as we made our way to see Tadokoro-san's progress. But all that we saw was a busy Tadokoro-san and a pot that wasn't sealed properly.
"Huh?" Su-chan asked to practically no one.
"Tadokoro-san, did you open the lid?" I asked her as she jogged to where we are.
"Huh? No." She said innocently as she explained.
"We still have to simmer it for 20 more minutes."
Me and Su-chan looked around....and it didn't take us long to know who the culprits are. It was the group that was working 2 blocks away from us. Their group consists a girl and two boys. I glared at them coldly as Su-chan moved to remove the lid from the pot.
We're welcomed by a not-so-very-nice sight. The meat that Tadokoro-san is simmering has a mountain of white stuff above it. I instinctively grabbed a teaspoon and took a small portion of the white stuff.
"It's salt." I informed the both of my teammates.
"How?! Wh-what are we going to do?" Tadokoro-san panicked but me and Su-chan ignored her. We just grabbed some spare ingredients and got to work.
"All right! Let's put our game faces on." We untied our bandanas from our wrists and tied them on our head.
"What?! But Soma-kun, Sumu-kun there's no way we're gonna finish in time." Tadokoro-san insisted.
"That teacher says some pretty good things." I said as I sorted all the ingredients we're gonna use.
"We're cooking pros before we're students." Su-chan added to my statement as he washed his hands.
"We're gonna serve a dish no matter what!" We both said calmly as we started slicing garlic (at a fast rate).
"You help out too." I told Tadokoro-san.
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"Evaluation please!" We twins said at the same time.
"All done!" Su-chan then placed the dish gently on the table.
Chapelle-sensei started evaluating our dish by testing how tender our meat is using the fork.
"So tender, the fork's practically springing back." Chapelle-sensei said as his eyes widened, the only part of him where you can see his suprise.
"Your team had an accident, if I recall. How did you manage to finish the assignment?" Sensei asked. I giggled slightly as I reached out and grabbed the honey jar that was on top of his table.
"We used honey! I kneaded it into the meat before the braise, and it was also included in the seasonings." I explained. Sensei hummed before saying.
"Honey has protease, which breaks down proteins. The protease went to work on the tough beef flank, allowing you to tenderize it in the short time you had left." Sensei ended his explaining as decided to taste it. While he took a bite, Tadokoro-san asked me.
"B-but how'd you know that you could use honey this way?"
"Well, a long time ago we read this cookbook that said pineapple juice tenderizes meat." Su-chan answered before me, so I just decided to add:
"But we couldn't think of a reason why we'd get an entire pineapple just for that, so we experimented with a bunch of different stuff to see if anything had a similar effect." I stopped so Su-chan continued where I left it.
"We discovered that honey has a long shelf life, so it's much more versatile." That ends our lecture. But for Tadokoro-san to understand further, we told her to take a bite. We sliced a bit from Sensei's portion and fed it to her.
We watched as she immediately formed a smile, when we looked at Chapelle-sensei, we also saw that he smiled, for every bite he takes, his smile grows bigger.
"Huh, so much for being 'The Chef Who Never Smiles'" I whispered to Su-chan who is clearly disappointed too. He just stayed silent and nodded.
"Chapelle-sensei smiled??!!" The whole class said in chorus.
"Yukihira Soma, Yukihira Sumu and Tadokoro Megumi. I'll give you an A rating." Tadokoro-san immediately smiled.
"However...." Sensei dragged the words as we, twins just stared at Tadokoro-san's shaking body.
"... I regret the fact that I do not have the authority to grant you a higher rating." And that's only when me and Su-chan let our bodies relax. My hands immediately grabbed upwards, to where my bandana is, and untied it in one swift move together with Su-chan.
"Glad you liked it!" We said in unison. I then immediately grabbed Su-chan's left hand, squeezing is tightly, and he mirrored my gestures.
"You can go to your next class." Chapelle-sensei informed us as he called unto the next pairs.
"We'll see you next time, Tadokoro-san." We didn't wait for a reply from her as we made our way to our next class.