If Kusanagi Mutsuki had a choice, (which she did not) she wouldn't have entered Totsuki Culinary Academy and would've went to a relatively normal private high school. Unfortunately such matters were rarely ever left in the hands of 15 year olds, capable or not, and thus Mutsuki's parents decided that Totsuki was a better choice for her education.
Had Mutsuki been a rebellious teenager , this would've been the part where she would start putting her foot down and stubbornly argue her disagreement over her forced enrollment to Totsuki. But Mutsuki was no such thing and just simply bobbed her head at her parents and that was it. So being the dutiful child that she was, Mutsuki spent the next week packing her stuff and buying whatever necessities she would eventually need during her stay at the in campus dorm.
The days passed in a blur and before Mutsuki was even aware of it, it was the night before her first day of class and she was feeling a bit nervous, despite knowing that she would just be seeing the same faces again from middle school.
It wasn't like she particularly hated or liked Totsuki Academy. Yes, it was a prestigious school and she knew that a lot of people would kill for a spot in the academy. But while the middle school division was a bit laid back, the high school division was a whole other matter. It was vicious and cutthroat and she wasn't even sure if she could actually graduate from the academy itself.
And all she really wanted was to be a simple pastry chef. But nooooo, being the 3rd child of the Kusanagi family meant either go big or go home and so her parents decided to send her to the best damn culinary school in Japan.
Except of course, there were no specific classes to cater to her particular interests. Mutsuki was sorely tempted to leave after her first year of middle school but stayed the next two years because she had gotten comfortable.
Her parents had unfortunately taken this as a sign that she would naturally continue going to Totsuki for high school as well.
A soft creak snapped Mutsuki out of her thoughts."Onee-chan?" A tuft of blonde hair peeked out from behind the door.
"Daigo!" Mutsuki grinned, opening her arms in a welcoming manner. Daigo quickly ran to her and burrowed himself in her arms. "Ooof! Daigo, wow , you've gotten bigger haven't you?"
Daigo nodded, burrowing himself even deeper in Mutsuki's arms. "Mutsu-neeeeeeeeee,"The boy whined, making Mutsuki's heart clench at the adorable bundle she had in her arms.
Ugh. This was definitely what she was going to miss the most when she left for Totsuki. Bye bye daily hugs from her precious little Daigo. She wasn't even sure if she could survive a week without cuddling her little brother.
Mutsuki briefly wondered if she could smuggle Daigo to Totsuki.
Unfortunately, she was pretty sure that everyone would notice within minutes of Daigo's disappearance from their home.
"Mutsu-nee, why do you have to go live at school?" Daigo's tiny hands suddenly gripped at Mutsuki's pajamas tighter. "Can't you just be driven every day like before? Or maybe I can go with you? I won't be noisy and I'll sleep on time and even give you my pudding! Just don't go!"
Daigo burst into a sob, clutching at Mutsuki, unwilling to let her go. Mutsuki sighed, feeling her heart break into tiny pieces. She hated seeing Daigo cry. Worse, she hated being the reason for Daigo's tears. She ran her hands through Daigo's blonde locks and said,"Daigo, I won't be leaving you forever. Nee-san just has to go live at the dorms because Papa and Mama think that it's a good opportunity for me to be independent. Plus I'll be learning lots of new stuff which means I can make you all the pudding and cake you want to eat!"
Mutsuki made sure to place an extra emphasis on the cake part as she had recently noticed Daigo eyeing the cakes at the pastry shop they frequented.
"…Really?"Daigo sniffled as he shot Mutsuki a wary glance. The word pudding always managed to grab his attention but with the added mention of cake; Mutsuki knew that she was close to convincing him.
A small smile tugged at her lips and she nodded. "Yup. More pudding."
A few seconds passed and Daigo finally extracted himself from his sister and instead plopped down next to her. He swung his foot at the edge of the bed, pouting to himself." Okay. If you say so. Promise to go back home every week okay?"
"I'll try."
"Well, trying's not good enough! You have to promise me Mutsu-nee!"
Mutsuki scratched her head. Daigo could get really pushy whenever he wanted something. When she got into Totsuki's high school division, it wouldn't be some walk in the park and she knew that she would have to spend a lot of her weekends studying. Aside from having a fearsome culinary curriculum, Totsuki's general education classes were also top notch and difficult. But Daigo was Daigo and she wasn't sure if her mental health would survive without her daily dose of Daigo's cuteness.
As much as it pained her, Mutsuki would have to compromise.
"Once a month. "Mutsuki finally said. "I can go back home at least once a month." She knew that she could've lied and said yes to Daigo's every week but Mutsuki disliked lying to him.
Daigo crinkled his freckled nose cutely. "Okay. Once a month then. With pudding when you get home. And not the store bought one!"
Ah. Pudding. Yes. A promise was never done with Daigo unless it involved pudding.
"Deal. But only if you let me sleep right now. It's getting late Daigo and I've still got a few hours before my first day. Unless of course, making me oversleep is your grand plan to make me stay." She yawned.
Daigo just looked horrified at the assumption. "I would never Mutsu-nee!"
A few minutes after Mutsuki had fallen asleep, Daigo clicked his tongue."Tsk, foiled again."
"Well, at least, she's going home once a month." He grumbled in between spoonful's of pudding.
"Dai-chan! You're gonna get a tummy ache if you eat too much pudding!" A voice called out.
"I wasn't eating any pudding Mama!" He yelled back, quickly shoving the empty plastic into the trash bin.
His mother tsked , before barging into his room and smiled. "Right." With a sigh, she ran a damp towel across his sticky cheeks.
And Daigo, as if he were a deer caught in headlights, blinked and grinned. "Whoops."
Mutsuki wasn't quite sure what exactly to expect during her first few days in high school, but she was glad that some things remained the same. She was put in the same class with a few of her friends and people were still as serious and intense about cooking as ever , except there were more Shokugekis being issued here and there.
But all in all, life was pretty great for Mutsuki.
Until of course, her temperamental best friend Ikumi challenged the new student to a Shokugeki. Mutsuki forgot his name but she did distinctly remember him having red hair and a fiery personality to match. She thought it wise to stay away from such energetic people as he looked like the type to get into a lot of trouble.
And she had never been so right.
"Ikumicchi, did you really have to challenge the new kid?"Mutsuki groaned. "I mean, he's just new and all and doesn't know much about how Totsuki works."
"I guess. But it's his fault for butting into things that don't involve him." Ikumi shrugged, flipping through the pages of that month's Hana to Yume*." It's also a good chance to see what the guy's made of. And you know I love a good challenge."
"What if he backs down though? And gets the Donburi RS president to take the challenge like it was originally intended?"Mutsuki made a grab for the magazine in Ikumi's hands but Ikumi deftly dodged her.
"Then he's not going to get expelled." Ikumi replied, signaling the end of the conversation. Mutsuki wisely decided not to pursue the line of conversation any further as she was aware that Ikumi was fully engrossed in reading the monthly shoujo magazine in her hands. Despite her tough girl persona, Ikumi was a big marshmallow and Mutsuki just loved to remind her of this fact at every chance she got.
In response, Mutsuki would always receive a glare from Ikumi that could send her running for the hills, but the red cheeks that usually accompanied it softened the blow.
A hum escaped Mutsuki's lips as she pondered over their previous conversation. It really wasn't any of her business but she felt bad knowing that her best friend would cause the expulsion of another student who seemed pretty decent, if her assumption of the boy based on the welcoming ceremony was correct. He seemed friendly at least, if not a little over confident. But that wasn't necessarily a bad things in Mutsuki's book.
Totsuki may be ruthless but it didn't mean that it was fair for someone's dreams to get crushed this early on.
And so with grim determination, Mutsuki set out to find the boy.
This was a stupid idea; setting out to find the new kid proved to be a lot harder than Mutsuki had initially anticipated. How hard was it to find a boy with red hair?
Very hard apparently.
She had searched the first year classrooms and other places first years were likely to loiter around in but there was still no sign of the boy. And anyone she asked would just start ranting about how the arrogant Yukihira boy didn't deserve a place at their prestigious academy and blah blah blah.
Mutsuki spaced out the moment they opened their mouths.
As time passed, Mutsuki felt like it was a lost cause. Yukihira was nowhere to be found and it was about time that she headed back to her dorm anyways. As they say, tomorrow is another day. Perhaps she would have better luck tomorrow.
"Kusanagi?"
Oh no. Mutsuki knew that voice even from a mile away.
Mutsuki whipped her head and out of reflex, cried out. "It's Mutsuki, Takumicchi!"
Takumi frowned as he walked to her with Isami faithfully following him. "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me by that dreadful na—"
"Isamicchiiiiiiiii!" Mutsuki squealed in delight as she shoved Takumi to the side before taking a leap at Isami ."Oh gosh, you have no idea how glad I am to see you right now!"
Isami genially smiled at Mutsuki as she wrapped her arms around his wide torso. "This softness! This warmth! Ahhh~, you Isamicchi are a godsend angel!"
"Oi. Stop ignoring me Kusanagi!" Takumi fumed, moving to Mutsuki who had begun rubbing her cheeks against Isami's. The Kusanagi girl clearly had no sense of personal space and seemed to amuse herself by using Isami as a personal teddy bear. He sent his younger twin a pleading look, Please shove her away. She's making a scene.
Isami, being the wonderful brother he was, decided to pat Mutsuki in the shoulder and ignore his brother completely.
"Don't wanna." Mutsuki stuck her tongue out, reminiscent of a petulant child. Takumi resisted the urge to strangle her."Do you have any idea about the amount of pent up stress I have from this month? I need my daily dose of cuteness to recharge me, Takumicchi! Or I'll die. Seriously. Luckily for me, Isamicchi's nice enough to give me my daily medicine!"
"Well, I don't care. You're bothering Isami!" Takumi was visibly seething now and Mutsuki took pleasure at this. It wasn't like she always went out of her way just to piss Takumi off, but it was exactly moments like this that made him such a fun target.
"It's really no bother, nii-chan. I'm just glad to help Mutsuki-san." Isami supplied unhelpfully, to which Takumi had shot him an icy glare that said shut up , big brother's trying to save you here.
Isami just shrugged in response.
"See! Your brother's such an angel. But Takumicchi, you can be such a sourpuss at times!"
A blush crept on Takumi's face as he began spluttering expletives in Italian, earning him Cheshire grins from both Mutsuki and Isami. The two took great delight at watching Takumi get all flustered. It was one of the many things that they bonded on, much to Takumi's chagrin.
"Those aren't very nice words." Mutsuki chirped, finally detaching herself from Isami.
"Wha-how did you?"
"Isamicchi taught me Italian curse words on Line!"
"Isami, you-!"
"She was very insistent, nii-chan."
"Wait. You guys are friends on Line?"
"Yup. D'aaawwww, are you jealous Takumicchi? Want a hug too? Ah. Wait. Nevermind. I don't wanna. You may be a pretty face but that's not enough to charge my cuteness meter." A smirk curled at Mutsuki's lips, infuriating the older Aldini. His face turned as red as a tomato.
"I. Am. Not." He gritted out.
"You're not what? Jealous? Or a pretty face?"
Takumi hissed like an angry cat and nearly lunged at Mutsuki (who simply laughed, still finding entertainment in the situation) but Isami had luckily seen this coming and pulled his brother by the collar."What were you doing wandering at this time anyway?" Isami decided to cut in, taking pity on his brother at last . As amusing as it was to see Mutsuki rile Takumi up, she was probably already testing Takumi's limited patience. If he left them to their own devices, he was certain that their petty banter would soon turn into an argument that involved throwing a lot of sharp kitchen implements.
Isami shuddered as he remembered the last time that he almost got impaled by a fork when he got caught in their crossfire.
Not exactly an experience he wanted to repeat.
"Oh! I was looking for the new kid! Yukihira. You'd think that finding a new student would be easy right? But nooooo, no one seems to have seen him since this morning." She huffed, crossing her arms. Her annoyance at her inability to track down one measly student returned.
Takumi crinkled his nose in disgust. "Wasn't he in the Donburi RS room?" He remembered of course, partially because the whole floor had smelled too much of meat and a combination of other ungodly scents. And mostly because he had seen Mito barge away from the aforementioned room cackling like a mad woman.
Mutsuki's face brightened up considerably."Oh. Really? Thanks! I guess I'll go pop at the Donburi RS for a quick visit so by—gwah!" As Mutsuki moved to leave, Isami grabbed her by her collar.
Takumi raised a brow at this. What was it with Isami and his collar grabbing?
"Sorry!" He shot her an apologetic look. "I just had to stop you before you ran full speed there. I don't think he's at the Donburi RS room anymore, we passed by the room and they were already locking up."
"Ah. That's too bad then." Mutsuki looked crestfallen as she said this and Isami felt a little bad at crushing her hopes.
"Why were you looking for him anyway?" A curious look was etched on Takumi's face. Mutsuki didn't have any reason to seek out Yukihira. As far as he knew, Mutsuki wasn't really interested in the likes of that Yukihira boy. Not that he would claim to know the pesky girl that well.
And so Mutsuki spent the next few minutes explaining the whole situation to the brothers and elaborated about her grand plan of convincing the boy to retract his participation in the Shokugeki. Needless to say, it was not well received.
Takumi, in particular, was not amused.
"Kusanagi, are you an idiot?!" Takumi shook Mutsuki's shoulders. "Wait. Don't answer that. Ugh-! Tsk. Asking him to withdraw from the challenge is an insult! You know that better than anyone."
"I know! But it's not like he's been in Totsuki for long. It's not like he'd know that. 'Sides, I feel bad for him!" Mutsuki blurted out. She didn't think it was that bad of an idea as she had spent a good hour thinking about it.
"For once, I'll have to agree with nii-chan on this Mutsuki-san. Familiar or not, asking him to withdraw is equal to insulting his culinary skills. It shows that you have already acknowledged Mito-san as the superior chef and winner." Isami frowned. "Does Mito-san know about this? I don't think she'd be very pleased if she found out that you were trying to interfere with her Shokugeki."
"Um." Mutsuki blanched. Isami had a point, if Ikumi found out about this, she was in for an earful.
"Just don't interfere. Whatever happens between the two of them has nothing to do you. Mito gave him a way out, it was ultimately Yukihara who decided to accept the Shokugeki." Takumi sighed as he ran a hand through his golden locks. Kusanagi could honestly be such a handful at times. Their constant banter would forever be a thorn at his side but even he couldn't deny that Kusanagi was always well meaning.
Well, not always, but most of the time at least.
Mutsuki dropped her head in defeat. The brothers had made a valid point; it was perhaps wise to simply allow the Shokugeki to unfold. "Fine."
Isami chuckled as he patted Mutsuki's messy nest of dark hair. "It's getting late now, how 'bout we all walk back to the dorm together? I can tell you more of nii-chan's embarrassing secrets."
Mutsuki seemed to perk up at this and Isami was glad that he had managed to distract her, even if it was at the cost of throwing his own brother under the bus. But underneath all the layers of Takumi's tsun* was a soft and fluffy dere* so Isami was sure he'd understand. After all, despite the bickering between Mutsuki and Takumi , his brother really did care a lot for her as she was the closest they had to a childhood friend in Japan.
Try as he might, Takumi couldn't deny the bond the three of them shared.
"Oi Isami, save me from this monkey!" Takumi called out to him, which was soon followed by an indignant Who the hell are you calling a monkey?!"
He snapped his head at their direction and found it hard to suppress a grin.
This, Isami mused, was perhaps what contentment felt like.
Hi! This is my first time writing an OC fic and I don't really know if I'm doing this right. I've recently gotten into Shokugeki no Soma and Isami is such a bae! This'll mainly be Isami x OC though I'm not really sure if I'll be shipping Mutsuki with other characters. I'd love to hear from you guys , so please do leave a review.
Notes:
Hana to Yume is a monthly shoujo magazine.
Tsundere= hot and cold, basically one moment they're all tsun meaning they can get harsh and cold but the next moment they're all dere/sweet and shy. Though I'm assuming that a lot of you guys should know what this means by now.
Also, I decided to drop Line (the app) somewhere in the dialogue since Line is actually a pretty popular way for communication in Japan.
