Chapter 4 Resurfacing Feelings
Hello everyone, I just wanted to publish this chapter just before the end of 2015
I'm really happy people actually like this story, so I will do the best I can with writing interesting stuff in here.
This is kind of the last chapter for a while that has mostly original content, the next chapters will be mostly following the beginning of the manga up to a certain point before there will be a lot of original content.
I however can already say that the last 4 chapters of this story will be completely original.
People that might be wondering about Souma, I am trying to portrait him a bit like a dumb guy that looks way to good for his own wellbeing, but isn't really dense. He will notice the feelings of people
But I'm in a bit of a pinch now, Should I have Souma start with Alice as his girl before Erina will join him later or should I wait till the three of them confess to eachother.. hmm..
Well it's time to answer some more reviews.
Tenza- z – thanks for the greetings, I will definitely try to keep it up !
ChaosOmega8 – Haha yeah this is definitely going to get spiced up in a couple more chapters. I am however not sure yet about the clinging, but I think I can fit it in somewhere to show the other girls that Souma is already claimed.. hmm..;)
Eramis8 – Run Souma, Run! Grab that pus.. ;)
Jin – Thank you Jin, I'm glad to read that you enjoy the story :)
I Hypocrisy I – I can only bow down to you, oh master of lemons
Guest – I try to write what I can, I really do. But sometimes you just need some time to come up with original shit and give the story a nice twist. But I do promise to finish the story, I hate it when people just stop writing and take an eternal hiatus :/
Stygian Hazard – I hope not to dissappoint. btw I'm a big fan of your story Crossing Boundaries
Zenon001 – Thank you kind sir, and I am happy you liked the lemon scene
Well that were all the reviews.
''…..'' people talking
(…..) talking of Erina her destructive mind.
Let's start this Show!
It's only five minutes after Souma's world got rudely shaken by the bus driver when the bus arrives at the train station in the middle of Tokyo.
Stepping out of the bus, he quickly makes his way to the other side of the bus platform to see when the next bus heads towards his destination.
Souma is surprise to see the bus going to Tootsuki only twice a day, in the morning to arrive in time for classes and late in the afternoon to bring those ''poor'' students back home.
Sighing to himself, Souma realizes that the bus is only for commoners like himself and all the other students are being driven to school by their chauffeurs.
Grabbing his phone to check his bankaccount, Souma comes to the pleasent surprise of having
exactly 1 whole dollar in his account.
Smiling to himself, Souma thanks his dad for taking such good care of him before reminding himself that 1 dollar is not nearly enough to have a taxi bring him to Tootsuki.
Having no money for the taxi nor are there any busses going, so Souma decides to take the most reasonable action.
He starts screaming.
''AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH'' before starting to curse his father.
After ranting for a few minutes, which manages to raise quite a crouwd, Souma realizes that cursing and screaming will not get him any closer to Tootsuki, so Souma holds off cursing his father for now and will remember himself to do it tonight.
Calming down a little, Souma can do nothing else but to run towards Tootsuki.
Many people will remember the day they saw a red blur making it's way through the city as it ran over cars and sat on top of trains whilst shouting profanities that should have never been heard by the ears of mortals.
What normally would take an hour for the bus, Souma managed to leave the city in about 20 minutes as he used all sorts of transportation, from sitting on small busses to hanging under a large bird.
But seriously, Souma did a good job of making his way towards the outskirts of Tokyo where he knew the academy was somewhat located.
As Souma ran, he couldn't help himself that despite him having no money, he thanks Joichiro for training him so rigurously or he would have never been able to run this long and would reach Tootsuki far too late to make it in time for his transfer exam.
Making his way through yet another small rural community, Souma is starting to lose his cool as every village looks the same.
Having a lot of respect for other people their property, Souma does not shy away from running through other peoples yards as the boss he is.
As he runs, Souma makes his way through 3 conjoined gardens and is being chased by the gardeners from the first house shouting at him to get the hell out of the yard.
He is then chased by the pool boys from the second house as they try to hit them with large pool cleaning net and manages to outrun them.
Unfortunately for Souma, the 5 guard dogs from the third yard manage to bite him a couple times, slightly ripping his clothes, before he is able to escape from them.
Running from the dangerous yards, he manages to find a road that leads towards Tootsuki academy as he can see the first buildings in the distance.
Smiling to himself, Souma is reenergized as he checks his watch to see he has 5 minutes left to make it in time.
Running along the road, Souma suddenly has to stop as the roads ends in front of a large fence.
Sighing to himself, remembering what just happened after he ran through those yards, he looks around to see no other way that leads to Tootsuki so Souma takes the gamble to climb over the fence.
Hiding in the bushes as he spies around to see nothing dangerous before continuing his run.
Making his way across the field of grass, the sweat drips down his face and Souma feels his muscles starting to get tired.
Feeling this, Souma loses a bit of speed and stumbles a little in pain, before coming to a complete stop.
Bending slightly over, Souma puts his hands on his knees as he loudly pants.
As Souma did not check his surroundings, he does not notice that his loud panting would accidentally wake up a girl his own age that was sleeping in a hammock 10 yards away from him.
Grumbling as she is waking up from a loud noise, Alice sits up and was ready to tell Ryo, which she expected to make the noise like he usually does after his training, to sit in seiza and have her tell him how to properply behave himself as her dog.
''Ryo! How many times do I ….'' She says as she lost her voice when she lays her eyes on a handsome young man, who isn't exactly paying attention to anything else but his own breathing and his sore muscles.
Swallowing a bit of saliva as she did not expect an unknown person to stand near her, Alice just looks at the young man, vaguely triggering a memory of long times past.
''Uh...Hello..'' Alice questioningly asks as he still hasn't payed attention to her.
With his hands still on his knees, Souma turns his head to look deep into the girls eyes, causing a heavy blush to appear on her face as he resembles her imaginary friend a lot.
As she remembers her performance in the bathroom, Souma stretches himself.
Blinking at the girl as her face starts to grow more red after remembering what she just did, he walks up to her and tiredly asks ''Poehaa, Do you think you could give me some of your drink'' as he takes her drink when Souma notices the girls isn't paying any attention to him.
As Souma is drinking he can't help but take a look at her. He considers her a very beautiful girl with white hair and red eyes, almost like someone he met in the past.
Unfortunately he can't help but shake his head as there are more important things right now, like getting to his transfer exam.
Enjoying the taste of tropical fruit, Souma looks around to see a large mansion in the distance which looks familiar as he remembers a picture from his father with a little girl.
Finishing his drink, he notices the girl is still lost in lalaland.
Suddenly been taken out of her fantasies, Alice looks up to see Souma shake her still figure.
Pouting at this she says ''fufufu aren't you a little rude nameless-kun'' as she looks up to him, she hears a nostalgic voice talk to her.
''fufufu isn't that what that older woman said in Denmark'' he thinks, before replying to Alice her question.
''Sorry but I really need to get to Tootsuki, can you point me in the right direction?'' the unknown young man asks as he deeply looks into her crimson eyes.
Unconciously pointing towards the other side of the fence, Souma starts running again, and as he gets smaller and smaller in the distance, she can almost see her dear childhood friend.
Just before Souma climbs over the fence with rips in his clothes, he looks back at her and shouts ''You know, you remind me of a woman with long white hair I met in Denmark a long time ago, she used to tease me a lot with her fufufu'' and starts climbing his way over the fence.
''Wai..'' Alice tried to shout, before she fell out of her hammock, landing right on her face as she is surprised by him probably mentioning her mother.
Picking herself up quickly as Alice rubs her nose, she watches the young man climb the fence till he suddenly turns around when he herars her shout and looks at her.
Feeling almost overwhelmed by her memories of the past, she can't help but compare the two.
Perfect bright yellow eyes that look inside of her soul. That's what Alice felt, as she can see his eyes focussing intently on hers. Not entirely different from the dark golden eyes of her childhood memories
With a soft glow from the risen sun, she can see his dark red hair slightly waving with the wind as they remember her of a lighter shade of red that she washed once in the onsenas they belonged to her young friend.
But what did it for her was his beautiful smile, this smile held her warm at night when she remembered that one day, this smile is what she missed so much.
As Alice recalls her past, her heart has also come back to life, spreading feelings of butterflies through her stomach and warmth through the rest of her body.
Looking back at the young man, she can see that he already left. On his way to Tootsuki in quite a hurry, she can recall.
''He did say he went to Tootsuki'' she says to no one as her eyes start to water slightly.
Being alone again in the large yard, she can't help but wonder if it was all an illusion.
''Did I just dream'' Alice sadly wonders as her eyes are locked onto the piece of fence Souma just climbed over.
She however starts to smile as she takes a look at her glass, Alice can see the truth right there as she looks at her drink being completely emptied and holds a distinctive second pair of lips.
Smiling to herself, she allows herself to cry a little as she grips her fist and holds it over her heart.
Alice looks up in the sky before hopefully wishing to herself with her eyes closed ''Are you the one I've been waiting for, are you my precious friend'' before making her way inside to grab some early lunch.
Slightly chuckling to herself as she comes up with plans to extract information about him from her cousin.
At the same time, Erina arrives at a large kitchen, which will be used this day to hold the transfer exams for potential new students.
Opening the door, she can find a group of about 100 people inside busy with sharing stories of non-existing grandeur and being able to cook dishes that would make the famous God's Tongue melt.
Hearing the door open, the large group starts to focus their attention on a most beautiful girl that makes her way inside the room.
Those that do not know her are already making plans to approach her during or after the exam, whilst the ones that do know her pray to God in thanks for being blessed by the presence of the famous God's Tongue.
Standing in front of the large group of would be students, Erina introduces herself.
''My name is Nakiri Erina, I have been tasked by the school to proctor your transfer exam today'' she says, smirking when her introduction makes the group of people that did not know her start to grow paler by the second.
Taking a step forward, Hisako start to address the group.
''My name is Arato Hisako, I am Erina-sama's aide and one of the interviewers.'' she says before she starts with the explanation of the exam.
But just before she can start explaining, Erina holds out her hand to quiet her.
''Hisako, Tootsuki is cooking, cooking speaks for itself, I do not have time for this many interviews''
As Erina walks towards the kitchen, all eyes are on her. No one expected God's Tongue to make a decision like this.
Looking over the ingredients, she spots some fruit, eggs, meats and vegetables.
Having a small appetite for eggs at the moment, Erina smiles to herself before showing the egg to the students.
''You will all cook a dish for me, with it's main ingredient being egg. Those who can satisfy my palate will be allowed entrance to the High school divison of Tootsuki Academy'' she proclaims.
Just as Erina finished her sentence, the group starts to take a look at eachother as no one is confident enough in their cooking to satisfy her famous tastebuds.
Seeing this, Erina gives the group a devious smirk, though feeling a bit dissappointed as no one even wanted to try to please her palate, before telling them in a professional tone.
'Those that leave within one minute, will have the opportunity to try entering Tootsuki again in six months time''
As soon as the last word left her, the room was emptied out within a second, hearing some of the more spoilt children crying on the phone to their parents.
Coming outside there were parents begging some of the teachers to admit their child into Tootsuki offering outrageous fees if they would accept.
Focussing back on Erina again, We see her take down a small list from the wall, from which we can read that it is an attendance list.
''Hmm 120 people were here.'' She mutters silently, before raising her eyebrow as she continues to read. ''But what is this, how unexpected, we missed one..'' As Erina did not expect someone not attending the transfer exam.
With the list in her hands, Erina makes her way towards Hisako before handing it over, questioning where her next appointment will be.
''It looks like there are only failures here today, please tell the board of directors that no transfer students have made it'' Erina tells her whilst making her way towards the door.
''CRRAAAAASSSHHHH''
They both hear the door almost flying of the hinges as it crashes into the wall as they jump into the air.
Calming down a little from the shock, they turn around to give this foolish person a piece of their mind.
What they see however is something unexpected.
A handsome looking young man, sweat dripping off his face as he stands in the door opening, looking like he ran 5 marathons in half an hour.
Before they can shout at him for his inappropriate behaviour, they notice him slightly bleeding from rips in his clothes.
Looking at eachother, Erina and Hisako decide to forget how this young man entered and quickly made their way over to him as he nearly fell to the ground.
Feeling something grabbing his arms, he looks up to see a pair of amethyst eyes looking down disdainfully at him while a pair of soft red look at him in concern.
As Souma looks at them, Hisako blushes a little as she has never seen a man this handsome, his tantalizing eyes locked onto her form.
Erina shows no outer reaction, but inside she thinks he is good looking as well, but would never admit it.
God's tongue is adored, not the other way around.
Feeling his concious starting to face, he asks ''Are the transfer exams held here'' he asks as he looks at Erina.
Looking at her aide, she turns back to him and says ''Yes, but the transfer exams have already ended 5 minutes ago'' she replies as his eyes start to widen slightly.
''Erina-sama, there are still 30 minutes left till your next appointment, I don't see any reason to not give this young man a chance'' as she feels a little bad looking at the shape Souma is in.
''We usually don't make an exception but as you are the only one here, are you willing to cook for God's Tongue?''
Smiling as Souma is happy to received a chance at cooking, he slowly nods to the two.
''But before you begin, what happened to you to make you look like this'' Souma hears the aide ask him as he starts to feel lightheaded
Moaning slightly as his body starts to tune out, he softly mutters with his last breath ''Uhh.. bus...tired...walk...'' Souma intelligently replied to Hisako as he falls into sweet darkness.
15 minutes later Souma wakes up to see a pair of concerned looking eyes check him over.
Blinking he sits up to see his small wounds cleaned and bandaged and most of the sweat washed from his face.
''That was quite the scare, young man'' he hears someone say next to him.
Moving his head towards the voice, he can see a smiling young girl watching him, before she helps him up she introduces herself as Arato Hisako.
''You look far better than you did a couple of minutes ago, but how do you feel?''
Stretching out a little, Souma answers ''I feel good enough to start the exam, if I still can that is..'' Souma says as he looks at the other woman in the room who is staring with hateful eyes at him.
Flipping her hair before walking towards him she says ''Hmmmph, you have 10 minutes to make me a satisfactory dish with the main ingredient being egg before I kick you out of this academy'' as she takes a seat at the table, her way of letting him know that he can start preparing his dish.
Making his way towards the kitchen, Hisako takes a seat next to her mistress and hands over the information the school has on the young man.
Taking the file in her hand, Erina starts to read.
''Let's see, nothing special so far. Born in a rural community not that far away, grown up in a special of the day shop where he also learned to cook, located in a backwater area'' she reads before she looks at his picture.
Suddenly seeing a small vision of her first real friend, Erina has her breath taken away.
''Are you alright, Erina-sama?'' She hears her aide ask her.
''Yes, I am. His photo just reminded me of someone, it's alright'' Erina replies softly.
Smelling something delicious being made, both of the girls mouths started to water a little, awaiting the dish he will present them.
''I can smell rice, fried chicken, soy sauce, ging, onion and luckily eggs for him, but what kind of high class dish can he make with such mundane ingredients'' Erina wonders as she bites her nail thinking about all the dishes with these ingredients.
Hearing the young man turn off the stove, she prepares for the probably delectable dish he will present her.
Watching him walk towards her, she can't help but getting drawn towards his scar on his eyebrow.
''Where have I seen this before'' She silently questions as the answer is on the tip of her tongue.
Deciding to forget about it for now, she watches the young man present his dish.
''I present to you, Yukihira's secret menu #8, The Transforming Furikake Gohan'' he proudly says as he puffs out his chest.
Silence. Just complete silence as she looks at his dish, before she's completely overcome by anger.
Throwing the seat on the floor as she stands up, she slams the table as she screams ''HAVE I WAITED 30 MINUTES OF MY LIFE FOR THIS.. THIS ATROCITY'' as she grows angrier by the second.
Nervously chuckling to himself as he can see that a wrong answer will spell his doom, Souma replies ''It's all I could come up with in the 10 minutes I had, If I had more time I could have made something far better'' He smoothly lies with a forced smile on his face.
Hearing his answer, Erina calms down a little as she recalls that it does take more time to prepare a high class dish with egg.
Not giving him the satisfaction of seeing her flustered, she flips her hair before appraising the dish he presented her.
Looking disdainfully at his dish which in her mind looked only good enough to be served to commoners and beggars, she hesitantly took a bite.
Closing her eyes as she tasted the dish, she is suddenly stuck in a cage completely covered in darkness.
As she starts to hyperventilate because she is scared of the darkness, She can spot a small light making it's way towards her.
Within a minute, there are small lights moving towards her cage from all around her, completely lighting up the room.
Looking closer, Erina can see that these lights are thousands upon thousands of little fireflies flying around her cage, warming her up in their glow.
Smiling as the warmth spreads through her body, the fireflies suddenly stop moving around her cage, they all move to the same spot in front of her.
As more and more fireflies join, Erina notices them starting to form a figure of a small boy.
Having completed the figure, the fireflies move as one and give her a beautiful smile, a smile she can remember from her first friend.
Smiling back in response, the small boy opens op the room while looking in her eyes. She continues to look to see the glowing small boy changing in the beautiful yellow eyes of the young man that made the dish.
Blinking twice, Erina notices that she is back into the kitchen, looking in the concerned eyes of the young man that presented her this dish.
Being lost in his eyes, she almost missed him ask ''Did you like this dish, proctor-sama''
Normally, Souma would never show this kind of respect to someone his own age, but being in the precarious position he is now, he is smart enough to take no chances to anger her.
''He looks so much like my first friend'' Erina tells herself, but before a friend she is a being much greater than that, so she haughtily asks.
''What is your name, plebeian''
Even though she and Souma spent that one day together, it wasn't enough to change her princess like attitude for more than a few hours towards him.
''Yukihira Souma'' he simply answers.
Having no recollection of that name, nor knowing it as the name of any of the Tootsuki alumni, Erina decided right then and there that he wasn't her old friend, because how can God's Tongue ever be wrong, right?
Flipping her hair again, she says ''Well Yukihira-san, as you only had a few minutes to come up with a dish and actually make it, I can't entirely fault you for such a commoners dish, but I expect to see much better things from you in our High school division, don't dissappoint me'' before grabbing a green stamp with a large YES on it on his transfer form.
Happy with the result, Souma gives her a simple thumbs up before turning his attention to his grumbling stomach and his lack of sleep.
Deciding that she does not like the look on his face, Hisako says angrily ''Do you even know what just happened, the God's Tongue of Tootsuki approved of your dish'' as she checks his reaction.
''Dog tongue..?'' He questioningly mutters as it triggers a memory of a little girl.
Hearing this, a large vain on Erina her forehead bulges before she grabs him by his hair and ripped jeans and throws him right out of the room.
''What is this nostalgic feeling/pain'' Erina and Souma think as they continue the rest of their day
Having just finished her last appointment, we see two tired looking young women making their way towards a large mansion.
Giving a stiff nod towards the security we see Erina entering the Nakiri mansion with Hisako as we follow her making her way to the dining room.
Sitting in her regular seat, Erina enjoys a quiet dinner with her aide as they talk about their day, before a pair of hands closes her eyes.
''fufufu Who am I little bakarina'' The voice teasingly whispers in her ear.
Knowing only two people with such a teasing voice, Erina shivers in her seat before angrily shouting ''Let go of me Alice cow!'' and slaps Alice her hands away.
Watching Alice grin, Erina can't help but give her the stink eye and continues her dinner.
''Arara my dear cousin, aren't you happy to see me'' Alice teasinly continues as her cousin ignores her presence.
''Lady Alice, please stop bothering Erina-sama, she had a long day'' Hisako says as she can see her mistress starting to get irritated from Alice her teasing.
''Hoho'' Alice snickers in her fist. ''I also had a long day sleeping in the hammock'' she says as Erina her face turned red ''Even had a young man running through the yard''
Hearing this, Erina almost snapped her fork in half, remembering Yukihira Souma from this morning.
''It must have been that annoying commoner'' she thought as she can remember him looking down on her being God's Tongue.
Can't help but getting curious about the face her cousin made, Alice asks ''You look like you know the young man I'm talking about?'' as she can see Erina her face turning red out of anger, or is it embarrassment?
Not bothering to answer Alice her question as she just wants the day to end, Erina starts to move towards her room, dead tired from the long day.
As Erina makes her way out of the room, Hisako answers Alice her question as it would be rude not to.
''We had a transfer student coming in late. He mentioned something about running all the way to Tootsuki academy and was shown the way by a girl in a hammock''
Satisfied with her explanation, Hisako bows to Alice and starts making her way to her office.
Walking to her office, Hisako can't help but smile to herself as she helped her mistress again today, especially with the new transfer student, as her face turns a little red thinking about him.
Opening the door, she took both her and Erina's bag and set them next to her desk.
She closed the door and made her way to her own room.
About an hour later we can see the door to the office open slightly before a small figure makes it's way stealthily inside.
Noticing the two bags, the figure walks towards the bags and opens one of the two bags on the desk.
Armed with a small light the intruder looks at the contents of the bag before taking a document out.
On the document we can see information about a certain red-haired young man with a tired face giving the cameraman a very tired smile.
Having obtained the information the intruder was looking for, the bag is closed again and put right back in it's original place before the figure made it's way out of the office.
''Hmm... Yukihira Souma..'' the intruder silently says as we can hear fufufu's into the night.
In her room, Erina just finished writing in her diary.
''Let's hope tomorrow will be better..'' was her last sentence before closing her diary.
Making her way towards her bed, Erina undresses her uniform and bra.
Watching herself in the mirror, she can't help but smile at her own perfection.
''No wonder people are jealous of me'' she happily thinks as she lays down in her bed.
Remembering her day, she can't help but smile as she remembered the transfer student.
Even though he annoyed her a lot, she couldn't help but feeling nostalgic as she looked at him, his dish was also far better than she expected.
Reliving the dish, she can't help but blush a little as she can remember the warmth she felt in the dish, warnth she only experience during that day with her first friend.
''Maybe this years won't be so bad, I'll be watching you Yukihira Souma'' she softly says as she fell asleep, dreaming of her first friend.
From a dorm somewhere on the school ground, we can hear the sounds of a party going on, while a young red haired man stands outside, shouting profanities that should have never been spoken as to not invoke century old curses from old tribes spreaded throughout the world. After this night, Yukihira Joichiro will remember for the rest of his life that it is very important for his own sanity to not forget his son again.
This was quite difficult to write, I'm not completely satisfied with the way things went.
But anyway, it's my first story, don't expect it to be perfect, because I don't either.
As long as you guys enjoy it, it is enough for me to continue.
For the people that might not like this story, don't be afraid, I'm working on 2 more stories and 4 more one-shots.
Which I hope you will like when I start releasing them.
Anyways, I would like to wish each and everyone of you, where ever you may come from, whatever your situation in life is a very happy and healthy 2016
Peace Out!
