I DO NOT own Yumeiro Patissiere or Yakitate Japan.

"I heard the news! When are you leaving? Am I in time?" Tsukino was dressed in her high school uniform when she barged through the door, breathing heavily. After spotting Azuma and Kanmuri, she was relieved and said, "Oh, good. I made it." Even though she has become the president of Pantasia, Tsukino still went to school

"What news? Leave to where?" Azuma was really confused.

"Eh?You haven't heard? Manager, you didn't tell them yet?" Tsukino asked a stream of questions.

"I was planning to tell them when you came,"Manager replied.

"Tell us what? Will one of you actually tell us already?" Kanmuri practically yelled.

Manager shrugged. "We decided to send you to St. Marie."

Azuma tilted his head in a questioning way. "Saint…Mary? Oh, you want us to go to a catholic church, right?"

Kanmuri shaked his head. "I think he means St. Marie Academy. You know, the prestigious patisserie-training academy. Actually, I take that back. You probably don't know."

Tsukino was impatient and ushered Manager to go on. Manager obliged and explained," Well, we thought that maybe you guys should learn more about sweets. We can add some more pastry elements to the shop, especially since sweets are very popular with the girls right now."

Kanmuri looked unsatisfied but didn't say anything. On the other hand, Azuma was full with excitement. "I love sweets! Woo Hoo!"

Just at that moment, Kawachi barged through the door and shouted with an irritated expression, "You better explain yourself."

Suwabara followed him and said, "For once, I agree with baldy."

Kawachi turned to face him. "Who ya calling baldy? I have hair now! Not a wig!"

Suwabara pushed the fuming Kawachi to aside, "What do you need us for exactly?"

Tsukino replied," Well, you, Kawachi, Azuma, and Kanmuri are going to St. Marie Academy to study how to bake sweets."

Suwabara snorted, "Why would I have to go there? I have Monica to teach me."

Manager ignored him. "Anyway, you're going to be training under the students there over the winter break. You'll stay there for five days and try to come up with a sweet, or multiple sweets, that you would find suitable for the shop. You should be back the day before Christmas Eve. I will now pair you up with your mentors. I hope you can learn from each other. You would be learning techniques from all of them, but your mentor would guide you through most of your time there. Suwabara, your mentor is the Hanabusa Satsuki. He specializes in candy art. Kawachi, you mentor is Kashino Makoto. He specializes in chocolate. Kanmuri, your mentor is Andou Sennosuke. He specializes in traditional Japanese food. And finally, Azuma, your mentor is Amano Ichigo. She specializes in strawberry tarts, but during your time with her, she'll be your creative mentor and teach you whatever you request. If you have any questions, ask your guide when you get there."

Kanmuri asked, "When are we leaving?"

Manager checked his watch. "I'd say in about two hours. So you better get ready fast, we'll be leaving the store in one hour, in order to get to the train station."

They all exclaimed, "ONE HOUR?"

Meanwhile in St Marie…

"Sounds fun!" Ichigo exclaimed after hearing about this mentor-buddy-sweets-program-thing-y. Hanabusa and Andou agreed, and Kashino was being his usual sadistic self and said," Well, I suppose it could be worse. I just hope they aren't problematic. Of course, I'm glad I don't have to go to my home…" Ichigo and her team are together and strong as ever after the cake grand prix.(A/N: they are 15 years old). She came to Japan to visit the week before the holiday started, at Henri-sensei's request. Only later did she find out it was because of the metor-buddy-program-thing.

"Ichigo, you'll be mentoring a kid named Azuma Kazuma. He is really good at baking bread and has the legendary solar hands." Kashino read from an email they received from Henri sensei.

"Solar hands? What's that?" Hanabusa asked.

"Wait, lemme see." Kashino typed in "solar hands" in the search engine and clicked on the first link. "Someone who has solar hands have abnormally warm hands which are suited to make bread."

Andou interrupted, "That makes sense. I mean, bread needs to be in warm conditions to ferment."

"Andou sure knows a lot-desu!" Caramel was beaming with pride.

"I bet Kashino knew that! I mean, it's common knowledge!" Retorted Chocolat. Off to the side she sweat dropped and thought: I didn't know that, actually.

Ichigo laughed awkwardly and raised her hand and rubbed the back of her head and said, "Actually, I didn't know that."

All of them sweat-dropped. Andou-kun pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his face and said," We learned it in out first year when we did a segment on bread."

Kashino made a really scary face and said," Apparently I didn't drill you hard enough. Lemme stamp all of out first year knowledge into your brain permanently!"

"Wahh! Save me from the devil!" Ichigo screamed as she ran away with Vanilla.