Food Batlefront

Hey readers! This is my first Shokugeki no Soma fanfic, so bear with me if I mess something up! This will entail the journey of Kazuma through high school, so I hope you all will enjoy!

Also, please, please, please leave reviews! Favs and follows are great, but I really need reviews to help me! If you like it, review why, and if you don't, review how I could make it better!

Thanks!

Chapter 1: Enter Kazuma

Totsuki Academy, eh? I mumbled. I looked around me and saw fancy cars and limousines parked in the parking lot. Transferees were slowly trickling into the Examination Hall for the transfer exam, dressed all nice and showy. Butlers and guards attended to some of the transferees, and some even carried tea trays heaped with cups of tea and delicacies.

I snorted with derision. Those pinpricks didn't know what they were trying to enter; had no idea what type of hell they were trying so hard to pass into. I knew, though. My father, Daijin Yokuma, was once the first seat in the Academy's Elite Ten Council, and once I had reached the age where I could properly hold a knife in my hands, he started teaching me all he knew about the culinary arts. Though to be fair, I didn't even know of Totsuki Academy until the last day of middle school, when my dad decided to go on a world tour cooking trip.

My father ran a small restaurant in the suburbs in the Tokyo prefecture, and for 13 years ever since I was 3 I worked in that restaurant, learning various culinary techniques and styles. It wasn't until the last day of middle school that I learned the truth about my father, and how he had gained so much knowledge about cooking.

"Kazuma, today you have finished middle school, and learned enough about cooking for you to flourish in Totsuki." Yokuma smiled at his son proudly.

"Totsuki? What's that?" Kazuma asked. He had never heard of a 'Totsuki.' Yokuma grinned.

"That's where you'll be continuing your cooking education, only on a higher level. Totsuki Culinary Academy, world renown for its graduating alumni, is an elite institution with a graduation rate of less than 10%." Kazuma's eyes widened.

"E-eh?! I'm not ready for such a school like that! I would never be even close to that level right now!" His father only broadened his smile.

"Believe it or not, I was the best of my class while I was enrolled in Totsuki. If I think that you're ready, then you are." He placed a fist on Kazuma's chest. "Go to Totsuki, Kazuma, and take the top of your class."

Just then, my phone rang and I picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Kazuma. Have you reached Totsuki yet?"

I rolled my eyes. "Of course I have. I'm about to enter the Examination Hall and take the Transfer Exam. Any last encouraging words for me?"

There was a silence, and then… "Don't fail. Oh, but you should also be informed that Nakiri Erina will be your examiner."

"Eh? Nakiri Erina? Who's that?"

I waited for my dad to reply, but all I got was, "You'll find out soon enough" before he hung up. I groaned at my dad's abruptness. All I could think about at the moment was to pass the Transfer Exam and start my campaign of taking the top of my class, so I had no time to indulge in thoughts like who this 'Erina' was. I fought back a yawn and headed into the transfer hall.

I slowly meandered into the throng of transfer students currently milling around in the Examination Hall and quickly analyzed the lot of them. My conclusion? They would all be failures. Every single one of them.

I wasn't exaggerating; I could tell whether or not people were confident and passionate about cooking, that was just a skill I gleaned from 12 years of training and 9 years of serving customers on a daily basis. All of these people just wanted to take advantage of their so-called 'high status' in the food world and elevate themselves even more without harboring a passion about cooking! I knew at once that none of them but me were going to pass, simply because I was the only one who had the ambition to do so. Those who didn't had no right to even try to join.

Suddenly, a gasp when through the crowd, and I blinked in astonishment as a blonde amethyst-eyed beauty and a pink-haired girl walked through a side door in the hall up front. The blonde seemed more cooking-inclined, so I focused my attention and analyzed her quickly. Her poise, her regality, her aura of power… I could tell at once that this girl was no ordinary student; her movements and condescending glare on the batch of transferees standing before her testified to this fact.

Murmurs began to circulate between the people around me.

"Oi, oi! Isn't that Nakiri Erina?!"

"No way! They'd never let her evaluate the transfer exam; she'd fail everyone right away!"

"This is nuts… no way this can be happening, right? I thought we'd get an easy examiner!"

I ignored the despaired mutterings of the transferees around me and focused on the girl. Nakiri Erina, eh? So this is the one my father was talking about… someone from this school that even he would know… Interesting!"

I was knocked out of my thoughts when I heard the blonde speak up.

"Hisako, what's the testing procedure?"

The pink-haired girl, Hisako, spoke up. "There are three parts to the Transfer Exam, Erina-sama. First, the intervie-"

"Boring." Erina cut in. Without looking back, she snapped her fingers and some people rolled in kitchens with food items on them. With deliberate movements, she turned around, reached down and grabbed an egg out of a bowl before turning back around to face us. "The main ingredient will be egg. You are allowed to make anything as long as it centers around the egg. Make one dish that can satisfy me and you shall pass. Also, I will give people who wish to retract their transfers within the next minute."

There was a moment of confusion, until her words finally sunk into them. They started panicking and running out the doors, crying for their mommies or whatnot. I just stood by at the side and walked up the aisle as everyone else was running out the doors.

I did notice, however, another transfer student heading up to the kitchen as well. I eyed him, but only caught sight of a flash of red before my vision was obscured by more frantic people.

When I finally reached the kitchens, the red-head was already there, staring at the two girls in front of him. When I directed my attention to where he was looking, I chuckled. Erina was holding Hisako's chin and tilting it up slightly, giving the impression of some romantic atmosphere. Of course, that red-head just head to ruin it by blurting out, "So we just need to make a dish centered around eggs, right?"

The two of them spun around to look at us in surprise. "Not just one, but two transfers are willing to take my exam?! Either they must be really confident, or just that stupid."

I grinned at Erina's words. "Well, I'd have to say that I'm on the confident side. All I have to do is make a dish that will get you to say 'delicious,' right?" I pulled out one of the two special cooking knives that my father gave me holstered on my hips. I gave it a whirl in the air and caught it by my thumb and index finger, like forceps. "Of course I'll take your exam!"