"Congratulations!"

Cheers broke out around the entire room as everyone clapped for those just entering.

A girl with braided blue pigtails stepped forward and approached one of the entering boys. "Congratulations on passing second year, Soma."

"Ooh!" The red-haired boy exclaimed. "Tadokoro! Long time no see!"

"It's only been six months, Soma..." One could almost see the embarrassed sweat upon Megumi Tadokoro's form but, true to her maturity since their first year together at Totsuki Culinary Academy, she recovered quickly. "How does it feel to finally be a third year?"

"A relief, to be honest," Soma replied, letting out an exaggerated sigh of relief. "I thought I might not make it near the end there."

"I'll say!" Exclaimed a blonde haired boy that had walked in with Soma. "What were you thinking, almost arriving late to a Shokugeki?!"

"There, there, Takumi," Soma said placatingly, patting the other boy consolingly on the back, "it all worked out in the end, didn't it?"

"It didn't have to happen in the first place, you idiot!" Takumi Aldini continued to rage. "Why would you ever consider challenging the second seat right before term ended?! If you had lost to Kuga-"

"Calm down, brother," a large boy with spiky black hair placed a firm hand on Takumi's shoulders, dragging the still incensed blonde away before he could get even more heated.

"Ah! Isami!" Megumi greeted, "how's the restaurant?"

"It's going well," the younger Aldini twin responded with his ever present smile, still holding his brother back as he continued to threaten Soma that he can't get himself expelled until they had yet another cooking match with one another. "But we're all waiting for brother to finish school and come back. I may be considered the head chef now, but we all know I'm only the sous chef to my brother."

"Must be hard, heading an entire restaurant by yourself," Soma sympathized. He could still recall the agonizing days that his negligent rogue of a father left him to manage their family restaurant by himself in order to do some work overseas.

"Not as hard as it's probably for Megumi, working for Chef Shinomiya, of all people."

The all turned to find a trio of girls had come to join their conversation.

"Oh! Sasaki! Yoshino! Nikumi!"

"Will you stop using that nickname?!" The chesty blonde roared at Soma's greeting.

"How're you doing, Ryoko? Yuki?" Megumi cried out happily at seeing her old dormmates, only to immediately be enveloped in a hug by Yuki.

"It's been good," Ryoko responded, brushing her long purple bangs to the side. "Though compared to everyone else, my life doesn't seem to be all that exciting."

"That's not true," Megumi argued for her friend's sake. "I heard you've been expanding the types of fermented goods your family has been selling! That's quite the accomplishment!"

"Maybe. But compared to Yuki and Ikumi creating their own business by together." Said short, amber-haired girl backed up from Megumi and held up two fingers in a proud sign of victory.

"With my knowledge of animals and Ikumi's affinity towards meat it was only natural!" Yuki boasted. Then she faced Megumi. "But still, Megumi working with The Chef Shinomya...who'd have ever thought? Isn't he really mean or something?"

Megumi shook her head. "Not at all. He may be a little strict but he's been teaching me a lot over the months. I still have a lot to learn before I return home."

As the trio delved into more in-depth conversation, the Aldini twins joining in moments later, Ikumi tugged on Soma's sleeve, making the boy turn to her.

"I haven't really thanked you for before..." she admitted, not entirely meeting his gaze. "For teaching me that the quality of the meat doesn't immediately make the dish. It was thanks to you that I've gotten as far as I did. If it weren't for you, I'd probably still be trying to push A5 meat onto everyone, thinking of it as the end all solution to everything."

"I didn't do much," Soma responded with a grin. "Nikumi would've figured it out eventually."

"Don't call me-" Ikumi started but she held herself back, blushing softly. "Well...I guess it's ok if YOU call me that..." She shook her head to clear it of the thoughts that started invading her mind. "Anyways, you don't give yourself enough credit. You don't seem to realize how big of an impact your supermarket bought meat had on me. And to think I was known as the Meat Master. It's rather embarrassing, looking back on it."

"You're still the Meat Master to me," Soma reassured the tanned girl, his words making her blush harder. "Oh, how's our upperclassman, Konishi?"

Ikumi's blush instantly vanished and was replaced by a vein throbbing at her temple. "Don't talk to me about that coward. After leaving during our first year he went and opened up a don cart. He said a street side cart is the perfect representation of cheap, delicious don. I mean how can someone go from being a Tosuki student to the owner of a food cart?!"

"That sounds exactly like something he'd do, though." Soma chuckled. "I'm sure his business is doing great though. I can't see-"

Soma was suddenly cut off by someone jumping onto his back.

"Soooooma!" The pale white haired girl now residing on his back cried out happily.

"Ms. Alice?" Soma blinked at the princess like girl's appearance once he steadied himself.

Alice Nakiri seemed to swell with pride at the tone of respect(read: force of habit) in Soma's voice. She turned her head and waved a hand at brooding boy behind them and ignoring Ikumi's indignant cry that Alice was interrupting her and Soma's conversation. "Neh, neh. Why are you as respectful as Soma here, Ryo?"

"I'm always respectful to you, mistress," the boy responded uninterestedly.

Alice puffed out her cheeks childishly. "That's not the tone of voice a dog should be using when talking to their betters."

"Considering I'm now the third seat and you dropped out before the semester ended..." Ryo continued in his monotone voice.

"What was that...?!" Alice demanded quietly.

"Nothing..."

Ryo's 'surrender' made Alice smile once again and she turned her attention back to Soma. "Say, Soma. When are you going to visit me in Denmark? Mama keeps asking Erina how you've been progressing but of course Erina refuses to talk about you in the slightest."

"Speaking of the illustrious first seat, where is she?" Ikumi asked curiously, looking around the room. She noted how the group of girls and the Aldini twins had expanded to include all the old members of the Polar Star Dorm, including the once seventh seat and graduated third seat Satoshi Isshiki. Thankfully he was wearing more than just his usual apron.

"Ah. Nakiri said that she had a function she had to attend with the headmaster," Soma replied. "She said she'll drop by later if she feels like it."

"In other words, we shouldn't expect to see her," Alice grumped. "Seriously, that girl is way too strung up. Someone ought to teach her a lesson." She tightened her hold around Soma's shoulders as she had still to release him from within her arms. "How about it, second seat?"

"I would but she never wants to have a match with me." Soma said dejectedly. "If this keeps going I'll never beat Pops' rank of second seat."

"Don't worry, Soma," Alice patted his head reassuringly, "we'll come up with a way for you to challenge Erina."

"How will you help when you're all the way in Denmark?" Ryo asked blandly but Alice chose not to hear him.

"Hey, Kurokiba. How's Hayama doing?" Ikumi asked, walking closer to the seafood expert.

"Akira?" Ryo reaffirmed. "Uh...last I heard, he and Professor Jun just started their three month world tour to study spices. I heard they had this planned out ever since Akira gave up his sixth seat position last semester."

"Bet that's going to look weird." Ikumi mused. "Hayama had really grown over the year and now Professor Jun barely tops his stomach." She entertained herself with the image a little before going over to where Alice was still trying to convince Soma to join her in Denmark, though this time as her pet...the girl was weird... "Hey Soma, isn't it about time you cooked something for you guests?"

"Ha?" Soma exclaimed and everyone in the room turned eagerly towards him. "I thought this was MY celebration party." He paused as Takumi cleared his throat. "Sorry...OUR celebration party. Why do I have to be the one who makes the food?"

"Well we all agreed that it'd be exciting to see the top seat cook. And as the almighty 'God's Tongue' isn't here, that leaves you next in line." Yuki shouted from where her enlarged group was standing and her words were backed up by a round of cheering.

Soma's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "You guys...FINE! I'll keep cooking until each one of you drop to the floor!"

Even louder cheering sounded after that.

-

The party lasted well into the night when all but a couple were passed out through the room and even the rest of the building. The two that were still moving around where helping clean up and take care of those who had passed out.

"My goodness," Ryoko chided as she covered Megumi and Yuki with a blanket to keep the pair warm. "You'd think by now they'd have grown out of this..."

"I could say the same to you, Sasaki." Soma chuckled as he did the same to Takumi and Ryo. The pair had eventually helped Soma out with the cooking, though both of their competitive streaks lead to three back to back cooking matches. The last one ended up in a tie since everyone had become exhausted from the festivities and started to collapse. "Even now you're still acting like a big sister to all of us."

"Well, when you've know people like Shoji and Daigo for as long as I have it starts to become a habit." Ryoko admitted with a giggle.

"I suppose that's true," Soma admitted. Then a thought but him. "Speaking of which, can you go check on them? I don't exactly trust them after dragging Marui off like that. I'll take care of the kitchen."

Ryoko nodded in agreement. "Ok then. I'll come help after I make sure they're all ok."

"Sounds good." Soma said as the pair exited the party room and closed the door silently behind them. As Ryoko ascended the stairs to look for her old dormmates, probably having wandered unconsciously to their old dormrooms due to the being punchdrunk thanks to the party, Soma headed towards the kitchen to clean up all of the mess they had made that night.

As Soma was washing one of the large pots, he heard the kitchen door swing open. "Did you find them, Sasaki?"

When he turned to look at the purple haired girl, he found himself looking at someone else entirely. Wearing a vivid red cocktail dress, with her blonde hair done professionally and her hands clutching a small handbag, stood Soma's wayward superior.

"Erina...what're you doing here?"

Erina flushed slightly but scowled. "Don't go addressing me so formally, Yukihira. And weren't you the one that insisted that I come to this party?"

"Well it's kinda over. It's past one in the morning."

Erina flushed harder and grumbled as she delicately sat herself on a stool near the stove. "It's not like I wanted to come this late. The event lasted longer than I expected." There was no way she would admit she had spent nearly an hour pacing back and forth outside debating whether or not to join the party.

"Well...are you hungry? I've already washed most of the dishes but I can whip something up for you."

"Fine..." Erina said resignedly, as if she were suffering from the thought of her hated rival preparing a meal for her.

"Well if you don't want to eat anything I won't cook," Soma grumbled.

Erina was about to retort when her stomach made an obscene grumble. Her face turned bright red and even more so when she saw the wide smirk on Soma's face. "Sh-shut up! I'll have you know that these high class functions aren't meant for eating but to converse with future business partners. Not that I expect a lowly person like you to understand." She tossed her hair over her shoulder in indignation.

"I get it. I get it," Soma raised his hands in surrender before reaching for a hand towel to dry off his hands. "I'll make you something to eat."

Erina waited in silence, propping her elbow on the counter as she stared off into space. She was dead tired from the function she had attended with her grandfather and the mental war she had had going on in her mind about whether or not to attend this party had drained her considerably. She was so tired she barely heard Soma asking her a question.

"How's Arato doing?"

"Hisako? She's fine. After she started being my full time assistant she's been the one who usually prepares my meals. I'll be throughly upset if your cooking doesn't even match up to hers."

"Yes, yes."

A moment later, Erina heard a bowl being set close to her.

"Enjoy."

Erina turned to look at what Soma had made for her and she couldn't help but shout at the boy's audacity. "Furikake gohan?! Are you trying to make fun of me, Yukihira?! Why are you serving me such a plebeian dish?!"

"Hey, aren't you being a little inconsiderate? It's too late for you to be shouting like that." Soma chided, washing the pots and utensils that he had just used. "And besides, didn't you like my furikake gohan?"

"I never-" Erina cut herself off at the look on Soma's face. It was his patented 'if you claim you don't like it I'll take it away' face. And just from the smell of the chicken broth alone made Erina sure she'd experience tragedy if he did that. Relucantly, Erina pulled the bowl and the pair of chop sticks to herself and took a bite.

Instantly she was flooded with warmth. As winter was rapidly approaching it was getting quite chilly outside and the heated scrambled eggs and chicken broth filled her with an intense warmth. Erina tilted her head up as she swallowed before letting out an immense sigh of satisfaction. Then, realizing what she had just done, she snapped out of her trance and blushed hard, looking to Soma, who was watching her with a knowing smirk.

"Well...? How was it?"

Seina's initial response was 'HORRIBLE!' but it was honestly a lie. Erina had tasted many dishes in the past due to her fame as possessing God's Tongue but for some reason this dish seemed to resonate with her more than all others, even though her professional mind argued that there were many that could easily overshadow a dish like this. Still, compared to the first ever dish of Soma's that Erina had tried, the boy's growth was evident.

Before, the furikake gohan had given Erina the image of being tickled by a flock of silky angelic wings. But now, with the warmth that was filling her entire body, it felt like she was being wrapped in the large, comforting wings of her guardian angel. It was so warm and inviting that Erina found herself all but devouring the bowl in front of her.

Much to her embarrassment, Erina picked up a napkin and dabbed her lips daintily. "It was...better than your first one..." she admitted with much trepidation. "How did you change the cooking process?"

"Nothing," Soma said in a cheeky grin. "Other than some minute adjustments and some advice it was the same exact recipe I used almost two years ago."

Erina had to concede his explanation. Overall the dish tasted identical to the one she had tested Soma on so there couldn't have been anything different in the ingredients and method department. Which left her with one explanation. "What was the advice?"

Soma grinned as his father's words floated into his mind. 'Listen, Soma. The secret to becoming a good chef is meeting someone who will make you want to give all the food you make to.'

"Tell me!" Erina demanded as Soma gave a soft chuckle.

"It's a secret~"

"Yukihira!"

Soma laughed as he walked to where Erina was sitting. Much to the blonde's surprise, he put a hand on her bare thigh and leaned in to whisper into her ear. "If you enjoy that dish so much, I'll make it for you whenever you want."

Erina went wide eyed and a shudder went up her spine from the moment Soma touched her thigh. Her mouth went very dry and she could've sworn she made a weird sound from her throat. But before she could respond in anyway, the boy backed off and went to the door.

"Well, I'm headed to bed. I'll see you next semester, Erina Nakiri."

And with that, Erina was left alone in the kitchen. It took a few seconds but eventually she started to move. Hanging her head and letting her bangs cover her face, Erina started to shake. "You idiot...don't just leave after saying something like that..."