Hello guys!

I'm sorry it took so long! I was really busy these past two weeks… But here it is! …finally. ^^' Well; not what I expected once again but then again, there never really was a time when it was so… lol.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who read, followed, favorited, and reviewed! I love you guys :D

Thanks to my beta reader Kishoto :D

Disclaimer : I don't own Shokugeki no Soma


Chapter 9 : Who's the incendiary?


Sunday morning

That Sunday morning was like every other. Tōtsuki academy was quiet as students who had managed to survive one more week were enjoying this little rest they had before heading back to hell once again while others were up and about to go and enjoy this day by going out in the field or just taking a walk.

Somewhere, near a furnished forest, the chirping of birds could be heard. The forest was quiet as wind slowly blew through the leaves, making a refreshing sound that one could spend hours listening to. It was calming and just so relaxing. A river serenely following its course could be heard as it went over the rocks and made the forest seem a little more alive.

Repetitive and rapid sounds came and broke the quietness of this morning. Flashes of purple could be seen in between the trees as the sound grew closer to the end of the roughly delimited path.

Eventually, a teenage girl emerged. Short purple hair caught the morning sun as pink highlights were created. The girl continued on her way and at last, reached the entrance of a grand mansion which she crossed without a second thought after nodding to one of the guards.

Once inside the mansion, she went up the stairs, turned around a corner and stopped before a closed door before knocking.

...

Toc toc toc

"Come in."

Erina looked up from the paper she was writing on her desk to see her secretary and friend enter the room.

"Good morning Erina-sama."

"Good morning Hisako." she greeted back.

"I've found the information you wanted." Hisako said as she presented her boss with a thin file.

The purple-haired teen had been running left and right since the night before to get Intel on the mysterious photographer. It hadn't been easy since they had used an anonymous address to send all of the emails from a public computer. Not giving up, she had contacted the aquarium where the couple had went the day before and asked them to send her the footage of their security cameras. They had been reluctant until she mentioned the name Nakiri. After that, they had been really cooperative and had even sent some free tickets for them to use when they'd like, along with the footage, in less than an hour.

From there, she had closely watched the recording for a person following the two from a distance which was small enough to take neat pictures and never crossed paths with the two. After thirty minutes, she had succeeded in pinpointing one person who matched those criteria. Hisako had zoomed and once she had been able to see their face - despite the hood they had been wearing - she had immediately gone through the students ID and found the person she was looking for. Then, she did some complementary research on this person before immediately going off to the Nakiri mansion to present the results to her boss.

It had been a little tiring but the contented smirk spreading on Erina's lips as she finished looking over the file was totally worth it. Erina was pleased with her work and that was all that really mattered.

"Good work." Erina praised as she sent a satisfied smile to her aide who smiled in return.

Now that she had Erina's approval, Hisako felt tiredness sinking in her body. Thinking back, she hadn't slept at all the night before. No wonder she was feeling tired now.

She swiftly excused herself and headed in the direction of her room. Since today was Sunday, she could catch some sleep before having to attend to her boss for the rest of the day.

Well set on doing just that, she opened the door leading to her room, let herself fall face first on her bed and quickly closed her eyes as slumber took her consciousness away.


At the same time in the Polar Star dorm, a groggy red head was fighting off the last remnants of sleep. His eyeballs slowly moved under their lids as they slowly came apart. Golden eyes gradually focused on the ceiling only to shoot open in surprise as their owner clenched the sheets beneath him.

Staring down at him were two smiling turquoise eyes.

Sōma stared unblinkingly at his smiling senpai as the surprise slowly started to fade away - he really shouldn't have been in the first place. This wasn't the first time he woke up to his senpai's ever smiling face, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Even if he dearly wished he wouldn't do that again. There was no dissuading Isshiki-senpai from coming to wake him up through the ceiling. He had tried countless times and he had failed just as many times.

He closed his eyes as a sigh escaped the younger teen's lips.

"What is it?" Sōma asked, resigned.

"Won't you come and help out in the garden?" Isshiki asked in return, the smile never leaving his lips.

Sōma just looked at him in silence as he wondered if he'd just give up if he told him that he was super tired from his week and wanted to rest some more. Plus he wasn't feeling so well. His head was heavier than usual and his throat was slightly uncomfortable, especially when he swallowed. He vaguely remembered his mom fussing over him when he was feeling like that in the past. He smiled faintly at the memory and closed his eyes.

"Sōma-kun? Aren't you coming?"

Oh right. Isshiki-senpai was still waiting for an answer. Sōma frowned slightly. Dozing off like that really wasn't like him. He was definitely not feeling well.

"Actually, I think I'll rest some more so I'll pass for today."

"Don't say that! Working out a good sweat is good for your body." Isshiki said as he smiled even wider than before.

Sōma only sighed once more before sitting up - he felt a little dizzy as he did so but pushed it aside - as he picked some clothes and standing up to make his way to the garden.

...

Three hours later, Sōma collapsed on his bed, completely drained of all energy. Indeed, he had felt a little better while working out outside - he always enjoyed the time he spent with his dorm mates - but now, he only wanted to rest. He should probably go and take a shower but now that he was lying down, he couldn't find even an ounce of strength left to get back up on his own two feet.

Five minutes. I'll rest for five minutes and then I'm gonna get up.

...

When he next opened his eyes, he was feeling even worse than that morning. He was feeling incredibly hot and if someone had told him that some people had had fun bringing a mass down on his head while he was out, he would have believed them without hesitation since the headache he was feeling was really intense.

He didn't know how much time had passed since he had closed his eyes but he had to go and take a shower now. He could feel his clothes sticking to his skin and it was highly uncomfortable.

He slowly placed his hands flat against the mattress and pushed against it to straighten up. His head was heavy and he was dizzy from the movement he had just made so he stopped moving for a moment before slowly standing and making his way to the common bathroom after blindly grabbing some clothes.

Since he wasn't feeling well, he opted for a simple shower.

He carefully scrubbed himself clean and started the shower head to rinse himself. As he stood under the warm water, he slowly closed his eyes and simply enjoyed the feeling of the water flowing over him. It was calming.

He would have stayed there forever but his head soon decided to pound once again. So he turned the water off, grabbed his towel to dry himself and left the bathroom once he was dressed once again.

He didn't meet up with anyone on his way back to his room but he could hear noise downstairs so he assumed they were down there, laughing about something. Paying it no further heed, Sōma entered his room, placed his dirty clothes away and slipped under his covers to get some well needed rest.

The last thing he heard before slipping into a dreamless sleep was the cheerful laughter of his dorm mates downstairs.

...

Something was cold on his forehead. He wasn't awake enough to actually know what it was but it felt good.

Too soon, the cool object was moved away from his forehead and out of reach. He frowned slightly but soon let sleep take him away once again.

...

Golden eyes cracked open and slowly focused on their surroundings. The dorm ceiling was the first to come into view. Judging by the light filtering in, it was already late in the afternoon. Almost night actually since it was a little reddish. Anyway, he was in his room. But something felt different.

Now that he acknowledged it, he felt something on his forehead. Sticking out his hand to grab it, he found himself staring at a small white towel. He placed it next to him and was about to look around his room to discover just what was making it different than before when he heard the door opening. On instinct, he closed his eyes and evened his breath.

Next, he heard footsteps coming closer to him and stopping just next to his bed. Then, a weight made itself known on his bed. He wondered just who was there but for some reason, he didn't feel like opening his eyes just yet. He wanted to see what would happen next.

He wasn't disappointed since soon enough a cold object was placed on his forehead. He identified it as a hand and he could surely hear a quiet sigh of relief. He expected it to retract itself but to his surprise, it made its way to his hair, shyly at first, as if afraid of touching it, then more surely but nonetheless gently. He was even more surprised when he felt those delicate fingers gently caressing his hair.

Slowly, Sōma opened his eyes and soon found himself staring into startled purple eyes.

Silence settled over them and the fingers stopped moving until their blonde owner reddened in embarrassment at being caught before evading his gaze and hastily retreating her hand, or rather she tried to but a bigger hand caught hers and stopped the movement.

Her head shot up and confusion could be seen in her eyes as she stared at him in embarrassed surprise.

Sōma just stared at her in silence before his gaze slid down to the hand caught in his. He had done it on reflex and hadn't really realized what he was doing until he had done it. But now, he had to wonder. What was Erina doing here? He couldn't recall them agreeing on meeting that day so why was she here?

Sōma was honestly confused about this.

He looked back up into her eyes and finally broke the silence.

"Why are you here?" Sōma asked simply.

Erina blushed some more before she once again avoided his eyes. Indeed, just how did she end up here?


Earlier that day, Nakiri mansion

"How dare he?!"

Erina was fuming. This was the third time. The third time she had called. And the third time she had reached the voicemail.

This guy...! How dare he...

He was supposed to answer when she called! The first time it happened, she had just thought he couldn't answer, maybe he was in the bath or something like that so she had let it slide. The second time, she had thought that maybe she had called at a wrong time once again by some strange coincidence. But this was the THIRD time. The third time!

You know what they say? The first time is a coincidence, the second is suspicious and the third is on purpose. ...or maybe they don't. But they definitely should.

Anyway, the fact was that he hadn't answered any of her calls. And it was really, really irritating.

The blonde started to drum her fingers on her desk in irritation. She had wanted to finish the conversation they had started last night since she had ...kind of hung up on him after finding out that he was in his bath.

But hey, he shouldn't have answered in the first place. This was totally his fault.

Anyways, she had to talk with him. And he wasn't answering. This was ...great. Just. Great. How was she supposed to discuss with him now?

...Oh! That's right! I can do that...

Erina took out her phone and speed dialed #1.

"Hisako?"

"Hai Erina-sama? What can I do for you? "

"Get my car ready."

"Sure. What's your destination? "

Erina smirked. "Polar Star dorm."

...

Ten minutes later, she had arrived to her destination.

The princess royally dismounted the car and stared at the dorm outside. This place was...definitely creepy. Just how could people live in...that.

She stayed there for a moment before shaking her head and determinedly making her way to the front door.

She knocked to make her presence known and cautiously entered after waiting for a few moments without seeing anyone coming. Once inside, she stopped in her tracks as she stared around her, completely taken aback. The inside was such a contrast from the outside! It was more grandiose than creepy - even if it was still nowhere near the grandeur of her mansion. Nonetheless, it was not so bad.

But that was beside the point.

Now that she was here, the only thing she had left to do was finding Yukihira. That could prove to be a challenge given the fact that she had never been there before and thus had no idea where his room was located. Add to that the fact that she had never actually asked him - she had had no reason to do that - and the result was a completely lost and out of place Nakiri Erina.

She was standing there, wondering what to do when someone called out to her.

"Nakiri-kun?"

She immediately recognized it as Isshiki's and turned in the direction it was coming from.

"Isshiki-senpai?"

The turquoise-eyed teen approached her and Erina froze in surprise. The guy was wearing nothing more than a fudoshi! How could he even wear that kind of thing? She had never seen him in anything else than his uniform so it really was a big shock.

She blinked slowly and when he came back into view, he was wearing his usual uniform.

...weird. Maybe she had just imagined it in the end. That must be it. There was just no way he would wear that after all. ...right?

Isshiki's voice brought her out of her musings.

"I didn't expect to see you here. Do you have some business with me?" he asked smiling.

"Well, I hadn't planned to come here today. Actually, the one I'm visiting is Yukihira-kun. Can you tell me where he is?" she explained dutifully.

Isshiki had a second of surprise before understanding dawned on him. He took a pensive stance as he thought about the possible location of his junior.

"Hmm... I think he might be in his room right now. He disappeared after 10 and he said something about wanting to rest."

"Oh, okay. Thank you. Could you tell me how to get there too please?"

After the complementary explanations, she set off to Sōma's room.

So... 301...302...303! Found it.

She knocked once and stormed in without waiting for an answer, now that she was in, she could see that doing that would have been useless since he seemed to be sleeping - though she only realized that after the lack of answer from the boy lying on his bed. She had gotten closer to him and had then reached this conclusion.

The redhead was really sleeping. And from what she had heard from Isshiki's-senpai, he had been since 10. It was already 2 p.m, so he had been sleeping for 4 hours already...

Erina let a breath escape her lips.

No wonder he hadn't answered. She felt a little stupid for thinking that he had been purposely ignoring her calls now...

Not wanting to think about that any more than necessary, she settled for looking at him as he slept. It wasn't often that she was in his presence without having the urge to strangle him after all so it was kind of refreshing. He seemed so peaceful...

His red hair was falling on his eyes and she reached out to brush them out of the way without really thinking about it, but as she did so, she felt a strong warmth emitting from the boy. Looking closely, he seemed to be perspiring a lot as well, with sweat pearling onto his skin.

Was he sick by any chance?

She placed her hand on his forehead to verify it and quickly pulled it back as if she had been burned - which wasn't very far from the truth. The boy was literally burning up! He was so hot that you could probably cook eggs on his forehead if you felt like it...

She was busy imagining it when it occurred to her.

Just what was she supposed to do now? Get out? Take care of him? She was supposed to be his girlfriend after all...so could she really leave like that? It'd be weird if she did that right? Would it be okay if she just left the task of taking care of him to someone else? Probably not…

Okay. No need to panic. I'm gonna figure something out.

The blonde started to walk back and forth across the room as she thought about all of her options. In the end, only one seemed to be okay.

Taking care of her sick 'boyfriend' by herself!

...this could prove to be a challenge. She had never had to take care of someone else before and she didn't know what to do at all. She couldn't even remember being taken care of when she had been sick. Actually, she couldn't even remember the last time she had been sick. Under these circumstances, just what was she supposed to do?

Erina froze when it dawned on her.

Why hadn't she thought about it before? It was so obvious after all. When she needed help, there was always one person who did everything they could to help her out of the pinch.

Hisako.

Taking out her phone, she speed dialed her and recounted the recent event to her.

Twenty minutes later, Erina came back into the room with a tray containing sports water, medicine and porridge - that she had made herself under her aide's instructions. She didn't get how such a simple and plebeian dish could be good for this kind of condition. Then again, when was such a dish supposed to be eaten...if she had a say in the matter, probably never...

But that was beside the point.

And so she sat next to the boy and waited for him to wake up after previously placing a wet towel on his forehead which she plunged in cold water every fifteen minutes.

After an hour, she had let herself get tempted by his hair - she was curious about their texture - and she hadn't regretted it. It was soft to the touch and she hadn't been able to stop herself from caressing it.

...

And that was how she had ended up in her current situation.

Staring into Yukihira's eyes as he was asking about the reason of her presence here. For some reason, she couldn't seem to find her voice to answer. She just wished something could get her out of here. An emergency, someone needing her help, something. Anything!

But nothing happened.

It was official. Kami-sama had something against her.

Ring ring ring

Or not. Maybe God was taking pity on her in the end.

Taking out her phone, she looked at the caller ID and was happy to see it was Hisako. She always seemed to be there when she needed it. She really was thankful to have a friend like her.

With that last thought, she took the call.

"...Hello?" ... "Hai." ... "Hai." "Hmm... Okay. I'll see you in a bit."

Hanging up, she looked up to her captor and spoke.

"I came to finish the conversation from last night but you didn't seem well so I took care of you for a bit. Be grateful." Erina stated. She had managed to regain her composure during that phone call.

Sōma just looked at her confusedly until comprehension dawned on him and his grip loosened a bit. It was just a bit but it was enough for Erina to free her hand - not aggressively but firmly nonetheless.

Golden eyes followed the movement as she stood up and dusted off her skirt.

"Oh. Thanks then. You're leaving?"

Purple eyes settled on him before their owner spoke.

"Yeah. I found a solution to this problem."

Sōma slightly cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Problem?"

"This stalker and photographer."

"Oh okay." he said. After a little pause he added "No goodbye kiss?" as he looked up at her beseechingly, with seemingly innocent eyes. His sickness gave them a glaze that shouldn't be allowed and Erina found herself faltering a little under his gaze.

She debated over it for two seconds before leaning in, swiftly kissing his forehead - like she had seen some people do in mangas in that situation - and straightening up.

"Get some rest." Erina ordered before making her way to the door, leaving a surprised Sōma in her wake.

For once, she wasn't the one subjected to his unexpected kisses and the look on his face was priceless. He surely hadn't expected her to comply. A satisfied smirk spread over her lips as she reached for the doorknob.

She was about to exit when Sōma's curious voice came to her once again.

"Wait. What's that solution you found?"

She smirked and answered confidently.

"Shokugeki."


That's it for chapter 9! Hope you enjoyed :)

It was a little longer than the previous ones but in the end, I never actually revealed anything about the mystery person… Next chapter? Hopefully. Lol.

Answers to guest reviews :

Sorina : Glad it relieved you from a long day :) I was aiming for that XD Though I can't say the same for the mystery person… I'm not sure why everyone thinks that but well. Can't say too much since I didn't talk about them here in the end… -' Next chap? ^^' I'm happy to know that you're enjoying it ^^ And thank you :) Thanks for the review ;)

Guest : Glad to know that you're enjoying this :) Thank you :D And thanks for reviewing :)

Thanks to all the registered reviewers too :D raydark182, Eramis8, haha77, Ryner50, evolvelove, Exercariver, TheBaka14, SHEhadMEatHELLO, Theblackbird123, Fusion0104, xMIgBlaze, Justinsj5, Hypocrisy|, MatchaWave, Light Sunshine, soulxspirit125, and DustDes (hope I didn't miss anyone)

So I'm not gonna try and predict anything for what's gonna happen next chap lol. Hopefully mystery person but it might turn out to be something else…

So I'm gonna do my best to actually publish next week XD I'll probably be less busy :)

Ja ne