Chapter Twelve: Competition
Kashino stepped through the gates leading to Marie's Garden. They had just come back from New York, only to be greeted with surprising news from Sully, Henri-sensei's assistant.
Kashino frowned when he thought about it.
Flashback
"What are you saying?" demanded Kashino, "We won't be running those shops?"
"No, unfortunately," said Sully, smiling sadly, "You see… Chateau Seika wanted to open the shops instead."
"And Henri-sensei agreed to this?" said Ichigo. Kashino nearly flinched from the malice in her voice. Now that she was Stoic Ichigo, she seemed to have lost some of her interest and no longer worshipped the famous patissier, instead seeming to view him like Kashino did; respectively but not a huge fan.
"Well, he couldn't turn down the request from such a prominent sponsor," said Sully.
End Flashback
And of all people from Chateau Seika to run this shop it's… thought Kashino.
"Koshiro-sempai, can you stop holding so tightly?" said Kashino irritably, annoyed he had just stepped off a plane and the redhead was there to squeeze his arm to death during the whole trip from the airport to Marie's Garden.
"Demo, demo, I'm nervous about the shop!" said Miya, smiling, "I want Makoto-kun to like it since it is an important place where a very important thing will happen!"
"Important—?" said Kashino, suddenly having a bad feeling, "What do you mean?"
"Oh, you'll see," said Miya, keeping a firm grip on his arm but releasing one hand to dial on a phone so at least some of the pressure was lifted and Kashino's circulation wouldn't cut off completely.
"Satou, Shiotani, lift the cover!" barked Miya into the phone.
"Hai, mi' lady!" came the reply. The few helicopters floating over a humongous object covered with a large cloth began to reveal it obediently. When the whole thing was unveiled, Kashino widened his eyes. He could feel both his teammates (Johnny had somehow gone missing somewhere) stiffen beside him. Even Ichigo as she was now felt a bit doubtful of their shop's future progress now.
"A- A castle?" spluttered out Lemon, her eyes wide at the large building, "You built a CASTLE as your sweets shop?"
"Well, why ever not?" said Miya, finally letting go of Kashino's arm and walking towards the 'shop', "It's not like I couldn't do it and whenever you set your mind to something, you do it, right? Come on, this is just the outside. The inside is even better."
"Hard to believe," said Ichigo quietly, "Though I'm not surprised you chose a castle as your exterior."
"You really are different from your old self," observed Miya, raising her eyebrows at her, "Your old self was much nicer. Anyway, come along now!"
Ichigo seemed to frown at the mention of her 'old self' but kept it in and followed the girl. Kashino breathed a sigh of relief and followed after them, Lemon at his side. Deciding to keep his head low and keep quiet with the hope Miya might forget to try and strangle his arm again, he did so. It wasn't until Lemon started to marvel at the castle did he look up.
And have the shock of his life.
The castle was gigantic up close. It towered over them, nearly blocking out the sun. The detailing was amazing and everything was perfectly built and flawless. Kashino wondered how much those men were getting paid to build such a thing on short notice.
But then he noticed who was standing in front of the main doors.
"Johnny?" said Kashino, surprised. The American was waiting, as if preparing to say a speech or something.
"Hey," said Johnny, "So, what do you think of this thing? Pretty cool, right?"
"Why should you care anyway?" said Ichigo, "You're working with us, aren't you?"
Kashino was frankly, quite scared. Ichigo was turning more and more unlike her old self.
"Well, actually you guys… As of today, I'll be working with Miya instead," admitted Johnny, "Sorry."
"Nani?" said Kashino, glaring at him. Despite everything, Kashino had begun to trust Johnny as a member of the team and had to admit he was a good patissier. Losing Johnny would make a big dent in their group's progress.
"Well, Miya's father helped me a lot in Japan," explained Johnny, "When he requested I help Miya with her shop, it's not like I could refuse."
"Putting that aside, why do you open up such a huge thing?" demanded Kashino, "It completely overshadows Main Street which is supposed to be the main attraction!"
"He's right!" supported Lemon, "Why would you go to such an extent to interfere with our shop?"
"Now, now, let's not forget it's not like I'm not allowed to do this," said Miya, "This was completely fine with Henri-sensei so you have no right to object. Anyway, come in and see the inside. Since we'll all be busy with our shops, you won't have another chance after this to see it."
Kashino looked at Lemon and Ichigo. Honestly, he wanted to run back to their shop and start prepping since they were extremely unprepared. On the other hand, it was a good chance to scope out the opponents. Also he wanted to see that there were no embarrassing 'Makoto' inspired stuff sitting around inside.
"Might as well, right?" said Lemon. Ichigo simply shrugged.
"Fine," said Kashino, walking up the stairs. Miya bounded eagerly to his side but he avoided her and continued walking. Johnny immediately sidled up next to Ichigo and started talking away even though she wasn't paying any attention to him.
"The main entrance!" announced Miya loudly, once all of them had entered and the doors closed, "Quite beautiful, don't you all think?"
"Amazing…" breathed Lemon, looking around. Kashino remained unimpressed. He wasn't going to start fawning over something built entirely by money alone. But he had to admit it was impressive…
"Like the Notre Dame in Paris, right?" said Ichigo calmly with no hints of being impressed whatsoever, unlike the old one.
"Yeah, that was the plan," said Johnny approvingly.
"What's with the church-like setting though? Will people really be eating sweets in here?" said Lemon, sweat-dropping.
"No, no!" said Johnny, "This is a room for marriage!"
"So now you host weddings?" said Chocolat, anime question marks appearing above her head.
"No, you idiot," said Marron, "This is where Miya and Kashino-san will—"
"Yes!" cut in Miya, seeming to want to announce the big news herself. She walked to the front of the room, Johnny next to her, so she could face the whole team at once. Then she said loudly, "I challenge Team Ichigo to a battle!"
"A food fight?" asked Mint.
"NO!" said Miya, "We are rivals from now on since we are running separate shops. So I decided to challenge your shop to see who can sell the most sweets or have the highest sales. There are prizes of course."
"What sort?" asked Chocolat suspiciously.
"Well, if Johnny and I were to win, which we will," said Miya, "Makoto-kun and I will wed in this very room!"
"WHAT?" yelled Kashino, pushing away her fantasy vision.
"AND Ichigo and I will date until we marry!" added Johnny proudly.
Ichigo narrowed her eyes and made an angry sound. Even Johnny wasn't brave enough to try and pick her up, providing he wanted to keep his arms.
"Hang on a minute!" said Kashino, "Don't go mixing our personal lives with this!"
"Well, the challenge is yours to accept but are you running away? That would be a shame," said Miya.
"Still!" said Lemon, "This sort of competition is ridiculous! And besides, what would we get if we won?"
Miya thought for a moment, "I never considered that but, if you were to win, I suppose Johnny and I would just give up on Makoto-kun and Amano. Is that all right, Johnny?"
"Yeah," shrugged Johnny, 100% confident.
"Even if you say that, the stakes are too high—" began Kashino.
"We'll accept the challenge," said Ichigo suddenly, stepping forward, "I don't know what you're thinking at all and the prizes are the most ridiculous things I've ever heard of but I'll never refuse a sweets challenge." She looked both Johnny and Miya in the eye, "How long does this competition go for?"
"U-Up until Christmas," said Miya, cowering slightly at the stoniness of Ichigo's eyes.
"That's fine then," said Ichigo, turning around, "Let's go."
"W-Wait! Ichigo-sempai!" called Lemon, running after her.
What is Amano thinking? thought Kashino, running after them.
"What do you mean, what was I thinking?" said Ichigo once they were all in their own shop, "You don't run away from a challenge do you?"
"Yes, but this is stupid!" said Lemon, "You don't want to have to risk being stuck with Johnny for the rest of your life, do you? Sure he's a nice guy but you're not into him, right?"
"Well no, but that won't matter because we'll be the ones who'll win," said Ichigo as if that solved everything, "We'll do the right things, our shop will function properly and we're likely to get more customers, you know."
"How?" said Kashino, "This is just a thought, but I think many people would rather go to a castle than what we have prepared right now which is basically nothing."
"We'll focus on getting our shop looking nice and selling delicious sweets," said Ichigo, "Koshiro-san will attract many customers with her shop of course but what if there's too many?"
"Isn't that the whole point of the competition?" said Lemon.
"If she gets too many customers, there'll be a long queue," said Ichigo, "Some people might not want to wait that long so where would they go?"
"Here," said Lemon, her eyes shining, "Are you sure about that?"
Ichigo nodded, "If you consider everything, Christmas is coming, you know. Therefore, so is snow, most likely. Koshiro-san will attract crowds of people who have to line up in the snow. So we'll make a nice warm shop where people can relax and avoid catching colds and attract many customers ourselves. The end."
"But at the same time, Koshiro-san will be getting many customers as well," said Lemon, "So this competition could end either way. Plus, it's not certain all the customers from Beautiful Night would come here. There are many other shops as well."
Ichigo flinched, "Well, that's true…"
"You didn't consider that?" said Kashino, sitting down frustrated and closing his eyes, at this rate I'll be walking down the aisle with the devil…
"Johnny's gone as well," said Kashino, "It was difficult enough running the shop with four people so how are we supposed to do it with three? And we haven't even decided on the exterior or interior yet since we all have different opinions. No matter how you look at it, the chances of us winning are about a bajillion to one."
All three of them remained silent for a while, each fuming or being depressed quietly. The sudden jingle of bells made all of them look up.
"My, my, what's with all the sullen faces?" said a familiar voice.
"Hanabusa!" said Kashino, "And Andoh too! What are you doing here?"
"Well, Caramel found out about your situation and we've decided to help you," said Andoh, smiling, "Besides, I must repay you for helping me with my shop last time."
"And I flew back to Japan," said Hanabusa, "When I heard about it. I see you haven't worked on the designing yet. I'll take care of that. Ichigo-chan!" he said the last part extra-happily as he walked to her side and took one of her hands, "It's nice to see you again." He looked confusedly at Lemon and Kashino who were urgently shaking their heads and making slicing movements at their throats as if to say 'don't do it!'
"Get your hands off me," said Ichigo, yanking her hand out of his grip and glaring coldly at him, "Playboy."
There was a surprised silence and then Hanabusa, looking hurt, took Kashino by the arm and tugged him outside. Andoh followed them.
As the door closed, Lemon turned to Ichigo, "Did you really have to say that, Ichigo-sempai?"
"What?" said Ichigo shrugging, "He always was. I was stupid not to point it out earlier."
Lemon ducked her head and walked out, until she was standing with Hanabusa, Andoh and Kashino who were discussing Ichigo's change.
"Yamagishi-san?" said Andoh.
"We have to get Ichigo-sempai back," said Lemon, a line of tears running down her face, "I don't care anything about the competition! But we have to get her back to the way she was!"
"But… If you forfeit or lose the competition, these two will have to wed…" said Hanabusa, looking sadly at Lemon.
"You'll need your parents to approve of her though since you're under 20 years old," said Lemon, "Do you really think Kashino-sempai's parents would want him dating let alone marrying the daughter of a big sweets company? Ichigo-sempai's dad is strict and protective so I don't think he'd approve of Johnny either especially if Ichigo doesn't actually like him."
"That may be true but Ichigo isn't going to let you pull out of the challenge as she is now," said Andoh, "And she won't tolerate slacking off either."
"We'll pretend to be working and doing everything we can to win," said Kashino, finally talking, "But we'll secretly be dropping subtle hints to remind Amano of her love for sweets."
"So our true goal isn't to win the competition but to remind Ichigo-chan of her love for sweets?" said Hanabusa, smiling, "It's good. I like it."
"Yeah," said Andoh. Lemon nodded smiling, wiping away her tears.
"We just can't have Ichigo find out," said Andoh, "She'll never like it considering her personality now. It'll be top secret, OK?"
"Yeah," everyone nodded.
"So, let's go prepare the shop," said Kashino, walking back towards the door.
"OK," said everyone.
We're definitely getting her back, everyone thought.
Couldn't come up with a great ending to this chapter so just wrote the first thing that came to my mind and what the characters would do. Still, hope you like it~
And I actually had to research Japanese marriage laws to find out how to write the marriage bit. So Kashino would have been stuck dating Miya for four years until he could get married. XD