第二章

馬鹿の家族

Chapter 2

Family of Idiots

Okay, so despite being a renowned chef that was of legendary renown, Yukihira Jōchirō was capable of being an absent minded dunce at times. Erina finally understood that when she met the father and son duo two years later at their family shop.

The problem with them going on a ten year tour to learn cooking techniques was rather redundant, as Jōchirō had not taken into account numerous factors. There were numerous ones, but one of the prominent problems were that Sōma needed an education, and finding a school that would accept a child transferring every few months between schools would be difficult for a foreign student. That could be solved if Sōma learned seven other languages… yeah that was not going to happen any time soon.

There was also the problem of time for Jōchirō as he had to split it between homeschooling Sōma, as well as training his son along with working in high class restaurants. That had been one year right there that Jōchirō had gone through, and he felt like tearing his hair out due to stress, so that was a no go.

The final prominent problem was that Jōchirō and Sōma had finished the main points of the tour, so there was no real need to fruitlessly continue on due to the fact Sōma was still a child and thus not allowed to gain real dining experience. Thus the reason why Jōchirō had returned to reopen the Restaurant Yukihira.

"I kind of feel cheated in a way," Erina muttered, swinging her legs on the stool at the counter. "I thought I wasn't going to see you guys, well Sōma-kun at least, until another eight years."

"That's more my fault ojou-chan," the Asura chuckled as he set down the Transforming Furikake Gohan before the little eight year old girl. "I was just a little too arrogant in thinking that I could teach him school stuff as well as cooking while traveling the world."

"I thought you were doing great pops!" Sōma told his father in disagreement as he too placed his Transforming Furikake Gohan before his friend. "Besides, I got to see so much of the world! Not many other kids can say they've been to Singapore, China, Russia, Germany, Italy," Sōma paused there, trying to remember the other countries he had been to with his father. "France, Mexico and America all in two years!"

"Did you learn anything though?" Erina asked with a raised brow, pulling the Asura's dish a little closer to smell. A happy smile emerged on her face, but was quickly gone with the dumb look Sōma was giving her. "Really?" she deadpanned.

"Well…" the redhead hesitated, scratching his cheek with a finger.

"If you can't even remember it, then either you must be an idiot, or just a forgetful person," the blonde muttered as she ate some of the father's food. "So good," she sighed happily, allowing the taste of the food to linger in her mouth.

"I think you'd have to taste his food if want to see if he's grown," Jōchirō admitted as he nudged his son's bowl of food forward.

"Oh fine," the girl pouted as she pushed the father's food away for the son's. She saw the look of anticipation on her friend and silently wondered if he had really learned anything at all in those two years. When she took the first bite of his food, she realized that he really had grown.

While both of their dishes were exquisite smelling and delicious tasting, the father's food had more of a refined and experienced taste as opposed to the fresh and eager taste that Sōma's exhibited. However, there was something in her friend's dish that was more potent compared to Jōchirō's. It was in both of their dishes, but the taste in the father's was more akin to nostalgia with a hint of sadness, while Sōma's was like a blanket wrapping warmly around her, warming her to the very core and soothing her worries.

That was the factor that decided the two-hundredth and fifty ninth match in the son's favor for the first time ever.

"I'd blame the reason my son won on the judge's bias," the older redhead smirked at the indignant look both kids shot him, but ruffled both of their heads instead. "But I feel that I'd lose out to Sōma every time if you were the judge from now on."

"Why's that pop? I've lost to you plenty of times when she was the judge when we were younger." Erina nodded her head as well, agreeing that this was the first time that she had ever liked the son's food over the father's.

"You had this really intense look on your face when we were cooking the food Sōma," his father admitted with a grin. "You never had it before when you cooked before."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Erina asked curiously, wondering what intense looks had to do with cooking.

"I wonder," Jōchirō wondered with a bemused smile on his face. "Now, I believe right now's the time that little Miss Ojou is to be picked up." He stopped his son with a hand. "I'll clean up; you guys have a lot to catch up on, ne?"

The two eight year old kids found a table out of the way that they could quietly talk to one another about their two year separation.

"Oh wow," Erina giggled to herself, completely amused about the little tale of this Takumi character. "Does he have bad luck or something, because I would have laughed too," the blonde snickered.

"He just can't keep a serious attitude on," he agreed with a grin. "It's because he's too easily freaked out is all." A mischievous appeared on his face. "I once freaked him out with fake spider."

"Do that to me and I'll smack you silly," she told him seriously, though the grin on her face kind of defeated the serious tone in her voice. However, the grin turned to a frown in a moment when she remembered what Sōma's father was talking about too long ago. "Sōma-kun?"

"Hmmm?"

"Your dad said you were really intent while cooking the furikake. What did he mean about that?"

"Well, I kind of think I know what he was talking about." He scratched his cheek while a blush adorned his face. "I was kind of thinking about how much I wanted to impress you instead of usually wanting to beat pop." He smiled as he remembered what he was thinking at the time. "It'd been so long since we last saw each other that I wanted to impress you with what I'd learned then make you admit that what I cooked was delicious."

"You really are an idiot," Erina admitted as she covered her face, mostly so to hide the happy blush on her face due to the strange feeling in her heart that Sōma stirred up. "It's like you're a shōnen hero who learns something but forgets how to utilize that ability until the plot calls for it or doesn't even realize he's using said ability."

"I'm not that bad," the redheaded boy whined. "Oh hey, you want to try out my new dish?" he asked as he opened up a small plastic container. His blonde friend looked on with trepidation as he raised a piece of squid tentacle covered in some runny sauce.

"Uh, n-no thanks." Her refusal was rejected when suddenly she had a piece of tentacle covered in what she identified as honey shoved into her mouth.

"Sōma-kun! You idiot!" she shouted as God's Palate gave her the imagination of being bound by a giant squid covered it honey. "Why?!"

"It's really bad isn't it?" the oblivious and dense boy chuckled as he too tasted his failed dish.

This is the new chapter 2. Please read it and review. It's for all those who wanted a better character development, and I actually agree. So we'll be getting some more pre-Tōtsuki chapters to build everyone's development. Of course, it'll be developed independent of the manga due to the childhood friend relationship between Erina and Sōma, so everyone will be a little differnt from the manga. Just a heads up.