When Soma came to, he was in a sea of white, a white that contrasted with his charred and burnt features. It appeared to be morning and shafts of sunlight, like so much wisps of dreams and the vestiges of reality, filtered through the curtains that shaded the windows of his hospital room. The dust floating in the air caught the light and to the eyes of an observer, seemed as if the particles of dust were participating in a merry dance. However, Soma noticed none of this. Still in denial about the passing of one of his dearest friends, his eyes took nothing in, nor did they let anything out. The sparkle, the kindle of flame that had burned through his first two years at Totsuki had been quenched. Quenched at the hands of fate, who had extracted from him a part of his own being, a part that the extraction of would remain burned into his memory until the day he died.
As he came to and sat upright in his bed, the presence of other beings in the room came into being. It was his father, Joichiro, sitting at the foot of his bed, with a look of utter loss etched onto his craggy features. "Hey...Dad….it's a lie right? I was dreaming right? Where's Megumi? Is she okay? WHERE IS SHE?!" Soma suddenly shouted through broken sobs. "My fault….all my fault…" Joichiro remained quiet. The image of his own son, always so spirited and optimistic, with such a broken spirit and mind was almost too much to bear. However, he was his father, and had a given duty to offer Soma the island in the roiling sea of his emotions that Soma could reside upon until both his mind and body came to.
After two weeks of hospitalization, Yukihira Soma was finally released back into the general public. However, he had only recovered his physical attributes. His mental state would forever be changed, and his classmates took notice of this. They took notice of the King of Totsuki, who had regaled them with his laid-back attitude, his friendliness to all, and his skill in culinary arts, had fallen. And fallen he had. After his return to Polar Star and Totsuki as a whole, Soma, though he did indeed participate in classes, his cooking no longer had any ingenuity whatsoever. His food was the type of food that merely fulfilled requirements, no longer the packed bombs of action nor risk that Soma had produced in the past. The spark of creativity had been quenched. This in particular concerned one female individual, called the "God Tongue" by the denizens of Totsuki, both feared and respected throughout the academy as a harsh critic and an even harsher human being. Erina Nakiri. She particularly had disliked Soma from their first year in the high school division of the academy, but over the time they had spent together, both competing, judging, and harboring a rivalry, Erina herself was quite alarmed of Soma's drastic change and saddened by Megumi's passing, as she had acknowledged Megumi as quite the skilled cook and as one of her acquaintances, of which she had few. Therefore, Erina began preparations to make overtures toward Soma, to overcome their bitter rivalry in order to re-kindle that spark of ingenuity, that sparkle that had always had been so irritating in their pasts, but now had become so endearing to her own perception of the now nearly grown boy.
However, the passing of Megumi would not be the only bombshell dropped upon the fragile metropolis that was Soma's mind. As he returned to Totsuki, he learned of a betrayal. A betrayal so subtle that to the ignorant observer it seemed as if nothing had changed at all. However, the corruption of Takumi Aldini had played out during Soma's own hospitalization. And as Soma returned, he was faced with a very sober Isshiki Satoshi who quite simply said "Soma, the rest of Polar Star has been expelled by Takumi Aldini. He's coming for you next" before walking away.