Full summary : "The Shino's" is destroyed in an arson attack, following Kojiro's trip to Japan, to visit his mother at Tokyo. The latter ends up by extending his stay, pending the completion of the major renovation works. Of course, his right-hand woman Inui Hinako, is the first to help out with the investigation, even though those two still get along as well as cats and dogs...

Yet, the coy interest they had for each other in high school could now (perhaps ?) bloom into something else, thus leading both of the cooks to a particular path which is not always an easy one.

Notes : Hi! Actually we're two authors writing this story. We hope that this first chapter (prologue?) will catch your interest people ! Also, it's a slow-burn romance type. You'll find a « Shokugeki No Souma : L'étoile » reference too !

❁ The order of introducing names is last name first name.

Don't own Shokugeki no Souma.

"Hinako..." Kojiro noticed the second seat crying on a swing. To tell the truth, Mizuhara Fuyumi, a fellow classmate of his, had forced him to run after her. Anyway, she turned her head straight off the bat in the opposite way.

"Senpai, you don't understand." she paused, "why I'm so angry".

"Like hell I can ! Why are you ?" he scratched the back of his head.

She sent him a dirty look as she stood up. "Why didn't you tell us before ? Are you that indifferent about us ?"

Her voice had betrayed her. And her heart ? She could almost hear it pound against her chest... It ached, but in a good way.

"That senpai had such a beautiful dream, such an important thing.. I wanted to know about it earlier !" she got all teary-eyed. "Then I could cheer for you from the bottom of my heart !".

As he lightly blushed, he stretched out his hand to give her a pat on the head.

"Now that it's come to this..." she muttered. "Let's have a shokugeki !" she shouted, breaking the silence.

"Huh ?" he shouted as well, pulling his hand back.

"If you defeat me in a shokugeki, I'll accept you going to france ! Defeat me in order to go to france !"

A few hours later the three judges had already chosen the winner. It read "Shinomiya" on each of their small pieces of paper.

"Well, just as expected." he casually said, wearing a smug face.

"Of course..." she brooded silently.

"Hey Hina-"

"Now I can send senpai off.. with a smile.." she spoke, defeated.

"Hinako..." he drew closer to her, "I'll... definitely make it big in France. So don't cry anymore." he clenched his fists, before eventually stroking the lass's head.

"Of course you will.." she smiled.

Well that was the last time she ever saw Kojiro being friendly..

"Yeah I've just landed." Kojiro informed his mother on the phone, as he collected his luggage from the carousel. "Yep", "Okay", and "I will" were the only words that came out of his mouth whenever he got phone calls from her. In fact, we could say that she was quite the hyper one, never letting him place a word. And this time, she was far more excited than usual.

"Nee Kojiro-kun."

He could already feel her grinning face behind the screen.

"Yes ?"

"I hope that you'll surprise me and bring a woman with you this time." she mockingly teased him.

"Huh ?" he shouted so loud every innocent passer-by frozed their movements to stare at the salmon pink-haired man.

" 'Kaasan. We've already discussed this." he practically growled in response.

"I know, I know. I suppose I shouldn't expect you to meet someone with that bad temper of yours."

" 'Kaasan.." he slightly raised his voice.

"Anyway, hurry up Kojiro-kun, lunch is waiting for you !"

She directly hung up.

"Really.." he muttered. Only five minutes spent in Japan and he already felt consumed. It was around noon and his flight had lasted for about eleven hours. Talk about exhaustion.

"Where's the exit again ?" he thought to himself before getting a second call from a co-worker, Fujiwara Mei. Actually she owned a chinese restaurant in the same district as him, hence having more like a competitive relationship with him.

"Why would she call me ?" he blinked as he slid his finger to answer the call. "Fujiwara-san ?" he asked. He could hear her sigh from the other line.

"I already told you to call me Mei." she replied in a annoyed tone.

"Why are you calling me ?"

"Always so straightforward huh.." she said back, playfully. "Listen. There's something you need to know..."

"About what ?"

"Your restaurant... has been burnt down.."

⁂

A single word to describe Hinako's saturday morning ? Relieving.

As a head chef, having busy weeks wasn't an option, and scheduling some down time to decompress and simply relax was the best thing ever.

Hinako was trying to hold down her laughter as she watched her favorite show on her laptop.

After a minute or two... she suddently received an incoming call from Kojiro. And it looked like it was his local phone number... "Wait what ?" she thought for a second. He rarely contacted anyone, let alone herself.

Then it hit her.

"Shinomiya-senpai's back ?!" she blurted out, taken by complete surprise. "Wait a minute... no way."

Why would he come back without saying a word in the first place ?

Then it stopped ringing.

"What the hell Shinomiya-senpai !" she shouted out as she quickly redialed, only to find her call declined.

"No" she said to herself as she redialed it once again. But the phone rang three times before going to voicemail.

She ended the call, but she had no intention to let the matter slide. Even if it was saturday—also known as one of her days off— she applied a small amount of foundation on her face, lipgloss and some mascara. "If he's messing around, then he's in big trouble." she rushed out of her room on her way to the " Shino's". She wasn't sure she'd meet him there though ; and even if she didn't, she'd shift towards his apartment.

⁂

"Damn it." Kojiro breathed, squeezing his phone he was stiffly keeping in hand.

Was Mei telling the truth ? Naturally, he was heading down there to check it out. After getting in a taxi, he called on his employees and Abel Blondin—"Shino's Tokyo"'s new head chef— in order to gather around the supposed crime scene ; a natural reaction to the expected conditions.

But he realised he had dialed the wrong number when he noticed four missed calls from "Baka n°1" alias Hinako when he originally wanted to call "Baka n°2" (Abel). It was pointless of course, having two contacts named "Baka". Still, both of them were morons in their own ways. And he knew damn well that Hinako'd harass him for not letting her know. "That annoying dimwit.." he muttered under his breath, to which the driver gave him a strange look.

"So," he began matter-of-factly, "Are we going or what ?"

Thanks for reading.