Me: Hi! I'm back! :D

Kashino: Wow. You actually ARE keeping up with the one week an update thing...

Me: Why did you ever doubt me? ;)

Kashino: Because usually, you can never keep your promises.

Me: Ouch. X.x

Anyway, tomorrow is the 28th of August and that means, tomorrow this story is officially one month old. I'm already at 92 reviews, which amazes me. So thank you everyone!

I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere!

My Journey, My Story

Chapter 10: Power, Like a Punch!

After the grand prix orientation, the sweet princes and I make our way to a different kitchen to discuss what we're going to do for the first round.

We have one week before our match. I've learned firsthand, one week is not a lot of time.

"So what are we going to do?" I ask finally. Pulling out a stool, I sit and place my elbows on the table. Himoto sits in the stool next to me and Komanda-kun and Isho-kun sit across from us.

The three seem to be pondering the thought. "Well," Komanda-kun says slowly, "We're supposed to represent 'power' in a fruit based dessert."

"How about we start by choosing a fruit as our base?" Himoto suggests finally, "After all, it's the most important piece to the dessert."

I nod in agreement. "How about using strawberries?" Isho-kun looks up to the ceiling as he thinks, "They're very cute looking, but have a deep, powerful taste."

"That's a good idea," Komanda-kun agrees, with a nod of his head.

Himoto nods silently. They all turn to me. I think they expect me to agree with the idea. But, truthfully, I'm not feeling it. Why? Because, strawberries seem like something Mom and Dad would have done. I want to go into this grand prix and show them I'm not my Mom and Dad. I'm my own person and I'll do whatever I feel is right, not what they did.

"Well..." I trail off awkwardly, "It's a good idea, but..."

"It's too similar to her parents' ideas," Fraise pops out of the oven, followed by Kumquat, Raspberry and Toffee.

It finally occurs to me that the sweet spirits have been gone for a few days now. "Where did you guys go?" I ask curiously.

Fraise sighs and lands on my shoulder, "Didn't you listen to me? I said we were going to the Sweets Kingdom for an exam. That's where we've been for the past like, week or two."

I remember it vaguely, but not really.

Kumquat sighs, "Ugh. Trust her to forget."

I narrow my eyes at the blonde spirit, "What's that supposed to mean?"

She tosses her hair and replies snidely, "Nothing."

"Anyway," Fraise continues, "what Lynne wants to say is that strawberries sound too much like something that her parents would have done. She wants to do something new and different. Isn't that right Lynne?" Fraise smiles at me, proud of herself for how well she knows me.

I nod meekly, "I... I guess so."

Himoto sighs, placing his elbows on the table beside mine, he says, "Trust you to make everything difficult."

"No," Komanda-kun has his thinking face on, "I think what Kashino-chan is saying is reasonable. We want to be known as our own team with our own ideas. Not a copycat team."

"Agreed," Isho-kun seconds.

Himoto rolls his eyes, "So what are we going to do then?"

Kumquat lands in the middle of the counter and instructs, "Well, think about it of course."

"Because it's not like we're already doing that," I reply to her sarcastically. With a roll of my eyes, I think, she really is just like her partner.

She scowls and snaps, "Well, Ms. I'm Always Right. Do you have any better suggestions?"

"Don't talk to my partner like that!" Fraise exclaims angrily. Jumping down from my shoulder she summons her spoon.

Kumquat summons her own cutlery and soon they're clashing them together angrily. Fighting, as usual.

"Stop it-desu!" Raspberry moans, tumbling onto the table clumsily. "You've been doing this all through the exam up until now!"

Both Fraise and Kumquat huff at the same time and turn away from each other. "Maybe we should all split apart and think about it," Isho-kun suggests. Everyone is tired from our week of intense training. We could really all use a break, "We'll meet up again in about 2 days and share our ideas. How's that?"

"I think it's a good idea," I agree. Taking up my role as team leader, I instruct them, "Alright. 2 days and we meet up here again. Same time."

"Okay," Komanda-kun agrees, "And if anyone has an idea, feel free to make a sketch on how it should look."

"Whatever," Himoto says quietly.

XxXxX

There's only 2 nights left until our first grand prix match and we still haven't decided what our sweet will be. Fraise and I decide to finally check out Salon de Marie for inspiration. I don't know how many times I've delayed that trip, so I'm sure now is the time to go. Texting Hana-chan, I invite her to come along. She tells me to go right ahead and she'll be there in 20 minutes. She's just finishing up some last minute studying.

I walk into Salon de Marie; the door bell tickles as I step inside. The student at the counter looks up and smiles at me. Waving at her, she waves back with a friendly smile, "Welcome to Salon de Marie. Can I help you?"

"Do you have a table for two?" I ask, looking at the full cafe, "My friend is coming to meet me here."

The girl nods, "Of course." She comes out from behind the counter and leads me to a table near the back. It is beside the window and I can see the lake in the distance. The girl smiles and places a menu down in front of me.

Flipping it open, I scan the list on desserts and am in awe of all the choices. I look for fruit desserts that spark my creativity. "Do you recommend any fruit desserts?" I ask the girl, reading her nametag; I realize her name is Amami.

Amami smiles at me sweetly. She must really like her job. "Well," She points to the menu, "There is Katsumo-senpai's berry cheesecake trifle."

"Berry Cheesecake Trifle?" I repeat in awe. That sounds amazing. The part that bothers me is that it's Katsumo's creation. "Isn't Katsumo in middle school? I thought only high school students have sweets here."

"Oh, well, Katsumo-senpai's level could very well be one of a high schooler, so he has a few desserts here," Amami tells me.

That makes me nervous. Katsumo's sweets are good enough to be in Salon de Marie? We're totally screwed unless we come up with an idea soon.

"Okay," I tell Amami, "I'll get that then... And one for my friend too."

Amami takes the menu into her arms and nods, "Of course. I'll be right back."

While she saunters off towards the kitchen, I sink back into my seat. I'm already losing confidence. This is going to be a lot harder than I thought.

Hana-chan arrives as the cake does. "Wow Lynne-chan!" She gasps. She sits across from me and Amami puts a plate with a slice of beautiful looking cake on it in front of each of us. "This looks amazing." She picks up her fork to take a bite, but sees my worried face. "What's wrong?"

The cake is a layered cheesecake like thing, I can tell by how it looks, it's professional. One layer is angel food cake, next is a layer of some sort of cream cheese mixture thus, why it is called 'cheesecake'. Next is a layer of strawberries and blue berries. The pattern repeats until the cake is topped with a layer of whipped cream and a medley of berries scattered on the top.

"This... This was made by my competition," I murmur quietly, "The guy who made this is my opponent in the first round of the middle school grand prix."

Hana-chan's eyes widen, "This was made by a middle schooler? Woah..." She picks up her fork and takes a small piece of cake. She puts it into her mouth and her eyes widen slightly.

There's a sickening feeling in my stomach. Doom.

Swallowing, Hana-chan tells me to try some. Hesitantly, I take a bite of my own slice. It's amazing, the texture is very light. The angel food cake is spongy, the cheesecake layer is light and creamy, the fruits are tart, contrasting beautifully. It's like, an angel in heaven, soaring across the sky, magnificent, white feathered wings, flying gracefully and watching over all the people.

It's beautiful.

"Oh wow," I breathe softly, taking another bite, "This is amazing."

Hana-chan nods in agreement, "You're going to have your work cut out for you."

I stare at my plate, "This is a fruit dessert, he could totally use this for the grand prix match. They most likely are."

"So... What are you and the sweet princes going to do?" Hana-chan asks curiously, taking a sip of her water before going back for another bite of cake.

I blush at this, "W-well, we haven't decided yet."

"You'd better decide soon," Hana-chan warns me, "To come up with a dessert better than this could take weeks."

I gulp nervously. We only have a few days.

XxXxX

Hana-chan leaves a while after, she didn't finish her studying and needs to get back to it. I'm staring at my empty plate. That had to be one of the most amazing cakes I've ever had. I can only imagine what kind of score that might get.

I need to show this to the guys. Amami comes to collect the dishes and I ask her, "Could I have one more of those to go?"

She nods and smiles, "Of course." At the register, she hands me a small cake box in a plastic bag, "Here you go, thank you for coming to Salon de Marie."

I pay her and walk out of the shop. With the bag in hand, I look around the campus. I have no idea where the boys might be. But I need to show them this, right away.

"So, where are we going?" Fraise asks. She pokes her head out of the pocket on my shirt. I asked her to stay quiet while I was with Hana-chan. I'm quite certain she doesn't have a sweets spirit.

"We're going to go looking for the sweet princes," I tell her. Fraise pops out of my pocket and flies up high to see if any of them are outside.

When she floats back down, she points her spoon towards the glass gazebo, "Well, I think I saw Himoto and Kumquat in there."

Out of the three sweet princes, it had to be Himoto Fraise found? Sheesh. Just my luck. I run over to the gazebo, but try not to jostle the box too much.

XxXxX

"Himoto!" I call out as I near the gazebo. He looks up from whatever he was working on to stare at me.

He has books and papers surrounding him. I really hope I didn't just interrupt something important.

"What are you doing?" I ask curiously. Sliding into the bench that surrounds the table, I move beside him to see what he's doing.

"I'm trying to come up with an idea for our match," He sighs deeply, pushing it aside so I can't see it, "Well, I WAS until someone interrupted me."

I roll my eyes, "As much as coming up with an idea is important, this is too!" I place the cake box on the space he cleared.

"Cake?" Himoto asks, raising an eyebrow. With a smirk he says, "You really are a glutton."

"Agreed," Kumquat sighs from her perch on a stack of books.

I pout my lips, "You guys are mean!"

Fraise stands behind Kumquat, "Seriously. Do you not have anything better to do besides insulting my partner?"

"Excuse me," Kumquat shrugs, "At least I picked a good partner."

Fraise puffs out her cheeks angrily, "What's that supposed to mean?!" She summons her spoon, "You're so rude!"

"Ugh," Kumquat rolls her eyes and flies upward, "Please don't bother me with any more spoon and fork fights. It's getting old." She turns to Himoto, "I'm going to go sightseeing a little."

I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to go sightseeing. She just doesn't want to be here with Fraise and I. "Wait a minute!" Fraise yells after her, "You can't just fly away from me like that!" She pursues Kumquat, so I'm left by myself with Himoto.

"This isn't just any cake," I tell him, my voice low and serious, "I went to Salon de Marie for fun and tried a fruit cake made by Katsumo. I'm pretty sure it's going to be the cake his team makes for the grand prix."

Himoto seems a little more interested now. "Oh really?" He says, taking the box out of the plastic bag, he flips it open to stare at the cake. "Hm, it has nice presentation."

"That's what I thought," I agree, nodding my head, "It looks so pretty."

Himoto continues eyeing it, "No doubt, it's Salon de Marie worthy." He fishes a plastic fork out of the plastic bag so he can sample it.

Cutting off a small portion, he puts it in his mouth and begins to chew thoughtfully. Once he's swallowed, he stares back at the cake, "Well. It has good taste too."

His expression is blank though. "Do you think he's going to make this for the grand prix?" I ask him impatiently, pushing him by the shoulder.

He tries to shrug me off, to no avail. "Well... Maybe. I don't know. You can never tell with that guy. But... There's something missing in this cake. I don't know what it is though."

That's weird. I didn't notice anything wrong with it. Could this piece of cake be faulty? "It tastes good, but... It doesn't really have a defining taste that makes you remember it."

I'm about to reply when he scoops up more with his fork and shoves it into my mouth, "Here. Taste it again."

"Urk!" I gasp, he pulls the fork away from my mouth and I chew. I'm not going to mention that's already used that fork; he's going to make fun of me for making it a big deal. Now that I'm thinking about what he's said, Himoto's right. There's no definition to this cake. It tastes good and well done, but there's nothing that singles it out from any other cake made the same way.

So, if Katsumo's team is going to use this for the match, we'll need to come up with something that not only tastes good, but has definition.

"You're right," I agree finally, after swallowing.

Himoto nods and sets the fork down. "Aren't I always?" I roll my eyes and look to him to see if he's joking. He's not. Like usual.

"Yeah, yeah," I grumble, leaning back I finish, "Don't remind me."

Himoto closes the cake box and sets it back in the plastic. Pushing it off to the side, he asks, "So... Do you have any ideas since our meeting?"

"It's only been a few hours," I reply, sticking out my tongue, "What makes you think I've got anything?"

Himoto rolls his eyes, "I just assumed. Sorry. For your information, I've already come up with a handful of ideas." My jaw drops. How does he work so fast? I haven't even been able to choose a fruit I'd like us to use. He smiles at my expression. "Geez. You're so slow."

"Shut up!" I moan, crossing my arms. "So, what have you got?" I look across the table where there are many loose papers with quickly drawn sketches on them.

Sifting through a pile, Himoto holds up one piece of paper, "Well. I like this one the most."

It's some sort of pie with pineapple and oranges. I'm not sure what the filling is, but it's topped with slices of orange and pineapple. The crust is decorated that the edge is braided, I've never been able to do that before. "Wow, that's nice." I say finally, after looking at the whole thing.

"And boring," Himoto sighs, sinking back in the bench and putting the paper on the table, "I can't think of a way to make it interesting. It's too traditional. I just liked the idea of using pineapple and orange because they are strong, citrus fruits that remind me of power. After all, you have to remember the theme."

The idea of pineapple and orange is interesting. I like it. The only thing that needs to be done is boosting the sweet's creativity.

An idea comes to me, "Oh! I've got an idea."

Himoto raises his eyebrow curiously, "Yeah? What's that?"

I think back to the orientation, "Remember when I was standing up there with the rest of the middle school team leaders?"

He nods, with a smirk on his face, he laughs, "You looked pretty pathetic up there."

I blush, but ignore the comment, "I realized how much bigger they are compared to us. But I'm sure, our skill is right up there with them. After all, you three are the top of class of all the first years, and I've had my parents teach me since I was a kid."

Himoto lowers his eyelids, "Just where are you going with this Kashino?"

"Well, I like your idea of flavouring, but what if we changed how the sweet looked? What if we made it look sweet and small?"

Confusion flickers through his eyes, "Why would we do that? It goes against the whole theme of power. If the sweet is small and 'sweet-looking' it'll have the theme of weakness."

"You didn't let me finish," I stick out my tongue, "the sweet itself will be simple and small, but what if the flavour is positively powerful? Kind of like a punch in the face. It kind of shows, 'okay yeah, we're small, but we're a lot more powerful than we appear.'"

I look at Himoto's expression. Unsure of whether he agrees with my idea. Hesitantly, he says, "Why don't you draw it out so I can see what you're thinking?"

I take the paper with his pineapple and orange pie design and flip it over. As I sketch, Himoto is looking over my shoulder. Dropping the pencil onto the table, I show him my idea, "How's this?"

Himoto stares at it for a second, examining what seems to be every detail. "Huh, what do you know? That might just work." He says at last.

XxXxX

The next day, the day before we're set to battle it out with Team Katsumo I explain me and Himoto's idea to Isho-kun and Komanda-kun. We really are cutting it close; we really should have begun figuring out how we were going to make this sweet a long time ago. But we only came up with it yesterday.

"Wait," Isho-kun says, still staring at the drawing, "You and Himoto came up with this together?"

Clearing my throat, I reply, "Well... It just kind of happened."

Isho-kun nods reluctantly. "Why is it that you guys always seem to be together?" He asks curiously, "It's like you plan it or something."

"We don't," Himoto and I say together. I look at him and he looks at me. This is so awkward. Why do we keep doing that? I blush and look away.

"Anyway," I whisper, half wanting to change the topic, half wanting to start baking, "Are you guys okay with this idea?"

Komanda-kun agrees full heartedly, "I think it's a great idea. It's an interesting take on 'power' which is sure to get us some sort of edge."

Isho-kun is in agreement too. I pump my fist in the air, "Let's do this!"

We've got all night. We just have to finish by tomorrow. If not, we're totally dead.

Fraise and the rest of the spirits are standing in the middle of the table, "We're here to help you guys," Toffee says with a bow, "In the actual competition, we aren't allowed to help, but we'll do the best we can so you guys can complete the creation of the sweet."

I smile at them, "Thanks guys! You're real life savers."

"Hmph," Kumquat sneers, turning away, "If you keep relying on people, you'll get nowhere."

XxXxX

Our idea, is to make orange and pineapple pie. Each will be individual sized, with two on a plate. The plating will be fairly simple, to go along with our sweet and naive appearance. Two individual pies with whipped cream and a sprinkle of orange zest on top.

A simple orange and pineapple pie uses, of course, pineapple and oranges and their syrup. You also need unflavoured gelatin, sugar, 4 separated eggs, and lemon juice and zest.

You mix together the gelatin along with 1/3 cup of sugar. And then add the 4 egg yolks blended with the syrup canned oranges come with, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and ½ a teaspoon of lemon zest.

Then, you put it over medium/high heat for 5-6 minutes. The time depends on how quickly the gelatin dissolves. You have to remember to stir twice. Then you chill it, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, you beat the egg whites with ½ a cup of sugar until it's stiff. After that, you fold in the gelatin mixture and the pineapple and oranges. Pour it into your should already be made pie crust and chill it in the refrigerator until it's firm.

After, you can decorate it however you want. So, it's a fairly simple recipe. But if we want to make it taste professional and unique, we're going to have to make it creative and our own.

It's 12 o'clock and we're still there, Himoto and I are working on the filling recipe, while Isho-kun and Komanda-kun work on the pie crust.

I yawn softly and rub at my eyes; this is the longest we've stayed up together. The sweet spirits helped us out at first, but they soon retired. They're sleeping under a napkin we spread over them. "You okay?" Himoto asks.

We're cutting up pineapples and I've paused to rub my eyes. "I'm extremely tired, that's all," I reply, as if it's no big deal.

"If you're so tired you should rest," He tells me, "Don't push yourself too hard. I know... I know your Dad's done that before a grand prix match right?"

Blushing a little, I nod, "Yeah. He stayed up all night without any sleep at all and went straight into a grand prix final. He passed out in the middle of it."

"And that cost them the match," Himoto says, "They got lucky that they were still able to go to Paris, we might not be so lucky."

"I k-know that," I stammer sheepishly.

"So rest if you need it," He whispers, taking the cutting knife out of my hand.

I stare at him, "What about you?"

He shrugs nonchalantly, continuing to cut more fruit, "You need it more."

XxXxX

After a break, I continue to work alongside Himoto. It's already 2am. Komanda-kun and Isho-kun are taking the individual sized pie crusts out of the oven. This is their 2nd attempt at making their own pie crust recipe. Thank sweets, it's a success.

Himoto and I have just about finished the filling, so once the pie crusts cool we pour the filling in. Isho-kun puts them into the fridge so they can chill. It's 2:30 in the morning and we're all so tired.

"We did it," I say finally.

The three nod in agreement. The whipped cream topping is finished too, we can put it on once the pies are chilled completely.

"Now we just wait for the pies to set..." Komanda-kun trails off with a yawn.

Sleepily, I nod in agreement. Yawning, I lay my arm on the counter as a pillow for my head. I'll close my eyes for just for a little bit. Just to rest my eyes.

XxXxX

I wake up from the sounds of birds chirping outside. My body feels sore and I realize, I'm not sleeping on a bed. That's right, we were staying up to finish our grand prix sweet. I must have fallen asleep and not woken up again. Willing my eyes to open, no matter how tired I still am, I'm surprised to see Himoto sleeping on the counter right beside me.

"Eek!" I gasp quietly. Startled, I sit up. That is one interesting way to start the day. I look around the room, Komanda-kun and Isho-kun are sleeping too. Crossing the room, to the fridge, I take out the pies. It seems the boys fell asleep before we put the whipped cream on them too. So I do it myself.

"A-achoo!" I look up from my work, it's Himoto. He's still sleeping, but he's cold. All he's got on is a thin T-shirt, no wonder. Plus, the air conditioning in the kitchen rooms always seems to be on. I slip off my sweater and drape it over his shoulders. It's the least I can do.

As soon as I finish decorating the pies, Isho-kun is the first to stir. "Lynne-chan?" He mumbled sleepily, rubbing his eyes and staring in my direction.

"Good morning," I greet, holding up one of the pies, "Do you want one? We should probably try it before we go ahead and make it for the match."

He laughs softly and nods. We sit side by side and sample the pie. It's perfect, chilled to be firm. Yet, it's fluffy and light. The whipped cream isn't too heavy and the citrus fruits have the perfect punch.

"It's great," I smile happily. I'm so glad it all worked out. Next time, we can't leave this too last minute, or else we might not be able to finish it in time. This was hard enough.

Isho-kun is smiling along with me, "You did it Lynne-chan."

Blushing a little, I say, "That's not true, we all did it."

"That's true," He replies, "But you did a lot of it. You came up with the idea."

I lay my fork down, "Well, Himoto helped me a lot."

Isho-kun sighs, his face looks somewhat downcast. "You and Himoto seem to get along well."

"I guess," I reply slowly. "Are you okay?"

He nods, "Tell me Lynne-chan, what do you think of Himoto?"

What's with the random question? Himoto... He's not as bad as I thought he was. His first impression on me was a little messed up, but as I got to know him, I learned more about him and the depth to why he acts the way he does. I guess I could say we're friends. Maybe even best friends. We've shared a lot with each other. He's confided in me about me saving his life and I told him about all my worries about the grand prix. I'd say we're close. As close as you could be with someone you've only known for a while.

"We're friends," I reply finally, "Why do you ask?"

Isho-kun shakes his head, "It's nothing." I'm going to say more, when someone interrupts us.

"Are those the finished product?" It's Komanda-kun, looking over the pies.

"This is it," I say, with a gleam in my eye. "Do you want one?" He nods yes and I grab him one. We all sit together in silence for a while.

Himoto is still asleep, he must be really tired. Komanda-kun looks over at him, "Ka-kun really pushed himself last night."

I stare at Komanda-kun with curious eyes, "How so?"

"Well... He woke up early last morning," Komanda-kun says with a sigh, "He called me about how he couldn't sleep. Apparently, he was barely sleeping at all that night. Something about feelings and having too many thoughts. I'm not sure, he was having trouble explaining. Last night, he didn't stop. He let you take all the breaks, did you notice?"

I blush guilty at this. I knew it. But he kept refusing. Himoto kept saying I needed it more. He used my lack of knowledge against me, if I had known he hadn't slept well I would have said he needed it more. "Yeah," I reply finally.

"I just hope he can pull through the match," Isho-kun says quietly.

I think back to our conversation about my Dad and Team Ichigo's grand prix final. Himoto would never push himself so far like that, it's the very thing he warned me about.

"I'm sure he won't," I say, a small smile on my face, "... He knows his body better than anyone. He'll know if he'll be able to do it."

Isho-kun and Komanda-kun nod in agreement. I look at Himoto and then at the clock.

There's only 4 hours until our match against Team Katsumo is going to start.

Me: This is the longest chapter for this story, I'm pretty sure. It's almost 5k words!

Ichigo: Wow.

Me: Thank you everyone for your constant support. Please review! I'm really hoping I'll be able to hit the 100 review mark with this chapter, but even if I don't... That's okay.

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