Disclaimer: I don't own Shokugeki no Soma, just this story.

Elite Ten meetings. Tastings. School. Elite Ten work. Tastings. Banquets. School.

On and on this went. An unforgiving schedule that would destroy any normal person.

For God's Tongue Erina Nakiri however, this was just a part of her life.

Since the young age of 4, she went under this rigorous routine. It started with tasting dishes, as only a few words could destroy a chef's reputation forever. Not helping was her "father's" cruel treatment towards her, as he shaped her to be like a machine.

As she got older, her work didn't end. She would go to multiple banquets, and watch as various young men tried to wow her. Her tasting schedule only increased, and she was starting her middle school study at Tōtsuki.

It didn't stop when she got to high school either. After she was freed from Azami Nakiri's manipulation, she knew that she wanted to run her own restaurant one day. Between her constant work as an Elite Ten member, a Tōtsuki student, and a Nakiri, she would start testing dishes, and slowly build up her arsenal of haute cuisine. All done so that one day, she could create a restaurant that would be among the best in the world.

She loved every moment of it. It was so refreshing for her to have a goal in life: be a vicious food critic, and a successful restauranteur.

But as time moved forwards, as she went to more banquets and tastings, as she worked more to better her school… her passion for testing dishes went to the backburner. Time and time again, she would simply be too exhausted to try anything new, and simply go to bed, to try and ready herself for another grueling day.

And as her spark of testing died down, her spark for tasting was slowly going down as well. The non-stop schedule she underwent for the past 14 years was starting to take its toll on the blonde girl. This culminated in her doing something unheard of: declining a tasting. It wasn't a tasting of some cocky upstart, which she would deny regularly, as she didn't normally recognize the skills of said people. She denied a chef that she had a good working relation with. Her aide, Hisako Arato, and grandfather, Senzaemon Nakiri, were alarmed by the declaration, and asked if she was alright. Erina assured them that she was fine.

That lack of joy carried over to the start of her third year. In classes, she would barely focus on the material being taught, and outside of Elite Ten meetings, she was a lot less talkative. It seemed like Tōtsuki's Princess was burning out, and no one would be able to save her.

A/N: Hello everyone!

If you're here because of I Promise You, welcome back! And if you just found this while scrolling through FFN, hey there! I would love it if you took some time to read my first story, I Promise You! Nevertheless, I'm glad you're all here!

Now I know when I was telling people about my next story, it would be a oneshot. However, I was planning a lot more for this story, and when I was writing out some scenes, they were over 9k words! So instead, it'll be another chaptered fic. Unlike I Promise You however, which (besides that 1 time) uploaded chapters about a week apart, this will take a lot more time.

I have a wedding to attend, a family reunion, some eSports stuff, competitive pokemon, and wrestling to watch, and next month, school will start. I messed up real bad last year, so I'm putting a lot more focus into school. Unfortunately, this means that fic writing will be taking a backseat to essays and the like. It sucks, but I have to do this.

I know that these sound like excuses (mostly because some of them are) but my personal life is a lot more important than my virtual life. No offense to my readers, I really appreciate every one of you, but at times it's hard to find inspiration to write, especially during summer. Life for me is normally so boring that it's hard for me to push myself.

Fear not, however! This story will get finished, I Promise You (bad pun/shameless plug). Unlike that story, which I did chapter-to-chapter, a good amount of this story is planned. I actually have future scenes written up! It's just a matter of getting each chapter rewritten so it feels right.

So technical stuff aside, the chapter!

So yes, just a small prologue, which shows Erina's passion for the culinary world fading due to the stress in her life. Also, from here on out, this story will be written in first person, in either Erina's or Soma's pov. This story is also a challenge for myself to be more descriptive of settings, feelings, etc. Personally, I feel like first person lends itself to more detail naturally.

Admittedly, it's not great, but it got all the points I wanted across.

So, I know it's not much, but please leave a review! I always pm any user who leaves a review. It can be critiques, ideas for other stuff, compliments, you name it, I'll reply! For guests... well, I can't help with that. Sorry :P

With that out of the way... Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you again!

Night Changes Prologue: Burnout - Uploaded 8.17.2017

(P.S: Thank you nagitochris for helping me through the planning stages of this story, I really appreciate it!)