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"What the hell is going on, Soma?" A murderous expression settled in her face.

"What do you think is going on, Nakiri?" She flinched at the sound of her surname spoken in such an unemotional voice. Echoes of 'Erina' and 'Nakiri' said teasingly ringed in her ears and made her remember the brief wonderful days they had passed together.

"What the hell are you doing in Central, Soma?" She spit his name, getting madder by the minute.

"Don't you want to win? To be the best this school has ever seen? The one that rises to the top of this very Council?" the read head asked. A look of confusion passed briefly through her purple irises. "That's what I'm doing. I'm on the winning side," a smirk formed on his face.

Her face went red at his words, fury manifesting itself through her blood flow, heartrate speeding up and breath getting rigged.

"And what of all those promises you made? Are you going to abandon your friends at the first opportunity? You're letting Azami break all your beliefs in cooking!" She stepped up and grabbed the expensive black jumper he was wearing, clenching her fists hard into the fabric.

"You don't know what my beliefs in cooking are," he shot angrily. The red head grabbed her right wrist in a tight grip. "Friends won't get me at the top of the culinary world. Central will," his eyes went stone cold, the usually warm golden irises almost black.

Erina flinched back and let go of his sweater, backing away from him in horror.

"I can't believe this," she whispered back. "I'm so stupid," Erina laughed ironically at herself. "These last days I actually believed you," she scoffed. "I really thought you were different, I really thought you would stand beside me. I guess I was wrong," silence settled into the room after that last whispered statement. The air was thick with tension until Soma looked away from her.

"If there's nothing else you would like to discuss, Nakiri-san," her eyes narrowed at the honorific title and her blood froze in her veins. Before she could respond, though, he went on. "I shall take my leave. As you know, this was my first Council meeting and I have yet to familiarize myself with all the paperwork it entails. If you will excuse me," and with those formal words, the red head grabbed all his papers without even bothering to put them in order and got out of them room.

His head pounding and his heart racing at an unhealthy speed, he fled through the corridors of the building until he could breathe the fresh air of the morning. Not wanting another confrontation with the Tootsuki Princess anytime soon, he hurried to the car that was waiting for him. He forgot any manners as he didn't even greet the driver properly, but his mind could not stop replaying the earlier scene. The fury and anger in her eyes had been overwhelming but… the disappointment. That had killed him, a knife stuck in his chest that he couldn't get out, twisting and burning his flesh from inside out. He had to concentrate to get oxygen inside his lungs as the car went on, bringing him to a prison. Not home. After today, he probably would never be home again.

Before he even realized it, he was back in his room. He threw the paperwork on the table and sat, burying his head between his hands. He tried to take calming breaths, but her final words just came back haunting him.

"For her," he whispered. "It'll be over soon, I just need to bring all of Raijin back and beat him. For her."

He didn't know how much time passed, but a knock on his door startled him out of his musings. Standing up, he fixed his clothes and ran a hand through his hair before opening the door. Nakiri Azami was waiting for him on the other side.

"Yukihira. To the training room. Now."

The teen just nodded, knowing he couldn't say no. They began to make their way to the room when the headmaster spoke again.

"Tell me, Soma," the teen narrowed his eyes at the use of his given name, "do you remember the training room?"

The red head simply nodded.

"Good," the headmaster continued, "you need to remember every smell, every taste, every time the dust made contact with your skin. The room would better be spotless. If you even missed one speck of dust you'll have failed the first test, and you can't have that if you intend to beat me," Azami smirked at the empty corridor in front of him, knowing how much he had just riled up the young man.

Soma snarled and his lip curved in disgust at the blatant provocation the older man threw at him. He had cleaned that room as if it was his own kitchen, of course it was spotless. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm himself down. He was already on edge after the brief confrontation with Erina, and he really needed to keep his head cool for this. Soma knew Azami would be ruthless and, from what he suspected about Erina's training… well, it wouldn't be pretty.


"Did you see him, Erina-san?" The hopeful voice of Megumi broke through her trance. Nakiri was sitting at the table in the Polar Star Dormitories' kitchen, replaying her conversation with Soma in her head without fail. He must have had a reason, and for the life of her she couldn't figure it out. She wasn't about to give up on him, no matter what he was doing. This was not Soma, not like him at all… But, as she had been finding out the past weeks, there was more to the redhead than what he presented to everybody. Who knew what the real Yukihira was really like, and that sent shivers down her spine. What if he had really been pretending, getting close to her only to be at the top. All those doubts swarmed in her head and ate her away, making her dizzy and desperate for an answer.

"Yes," she finally answered. "Yes, I saw him," a sigh escaped her lips.

"And?" Yuki inquired.

"He… well, he said he was in Central because he wanted to be the best. To be at the top."

Erina cringed at the outrage of the other residents of the dormitories, all of them not believing their friend would do something like that.

"Look," she interrupted them with a firm voice, "I don't know what's going on. I want to believe that he has his reasons for doing something like this, but we can't stop doing our thing. We are targeted, the dormitories are going to be shut down and people are already saying we are 'The rebels'."

"They are going to shut down the Polar Star Dorms?" Megumi whispered with a heartbroken expression on her face.

"Not if we can't help it," the Tootsuki Prncess replied. "It has been decided that every Research Society and the dorm will have the chance to remain open only if they win a Shokugeki against Central."

"Are you going participate yourself in the Shokugeki, then, Nakiri-san?" Isshiki fixed his eyes on her, trying to gauge her reaction.

"I don't know?" She sighed yet again. "Probably not. All of you could take down someone from Central if we work together, and we don't really know the conditions of it. Maybe Central will choose who to go against with. It's all pretty much in the air at this stage, at least until we formally challenge them."

"I just can't believe it," Yuki said. "Soma wouldn't do something like this. Ever. I don't understand."

Megumi grabbed her hand and squeezed in support. All of the other residents knew that Yuki saw the redhead as a brother, and admired him. This had to have been a big blow for her. Megumi herself didn't know what to think.

"It's been a long day for everybody," stated Isshiki. "Let's all go have some air and rest. This afternoon we will do all the paperwork for the upcoming Shokugeki and we'll start to practice," the younger ones all nodded at him. "But for now let's have some time."

In just a few minutes Erina found herself staring again at the brown beautiful wood table, hands intertwined on it.

"How bad was it really?"

"It was a disaster," she dropped her head onto her hands. "We got mad, and it escalated, and I accused him of lying and…" she huffed. "I just got so angry. And then so disappointed…"

A warm hand settled on her shoulder.

"I have faith in him, Erina," formalities gone when they were alone, these past few days the former Seventh Seat and the Nakiri heir had grown closer.

"I know. Me too, I just…"

"You don't know when you're going to start losing this faith."

The resigned expression on her face told him everything he needed to know. Satoshi wished he could tell her what little he knew, that he could confess he knew Yukhira was going to go, but to protect her, to protect everyone from having to suffer Central's Regimen all their remaining years in the school. What he could tell her, though… maybe that would set her on a path to find what was going on.

"Do you remember the night before he left?" It had been not even a week ago, but it already felt like an eternity.

"Of course," the blond answered, wondering where this was going.

"That night, I found him here, in the kitchen, alone."

"I thought he was meeting someone? Fumio-san made me go get him because he had a visitor waiting for him."

"Yes. I heard some shouting from the garden -you know, I was taking care of my beautiful plants," an amused smile escaped her, "and I went to see what was going on." Satoshi fixed her with his eyes. "I came across his father leaving the kitchen."

"His father?" she interrupted. "You know him?"

"Yes, he came by a long time ago and they had a small competition in the kitchen. Which Soma lost, by the way."

She let out a small laugh. Well, he wasn't as invincible as he wanted to portray if his dad could defeat him.

"His father…" the older student continued, "Well, he didn't look happy at all. And Yukihira-kun was on the floor. Literally on his knees, staring at the floor and shaking."

"What?" she stood up.

"I went with him outside, to calm him down and talk, but I couldn't get anything out of him," he lied. The little he had got out of him he'd promised not to say. And he wasn't about to break any promises.

"Why didn't you tell me?" the blonde asked incensed.

"Erina, it was late already, everybody was sleeping. It didn't occur to me that the next day he would be gone."

"That doesn't matter, he shouldn't have been alone! We don't know what happened, what if… what if it was something his father said that made him go?" she was desperate. Desperate to know the reason he left them, he left her.

She didn't know what to think, how to feel… He'd made her promises. Promises she had believed, no matter how hard they'd seemed to keep, but now… Now he was really gone. No more holding her at night and helping her through the nightmares, no more spontaneous hugs and touches that made her skin tingle, no more standing at her side against her father, against the world. It hurt. It hurt so much, as if she had a gaping open wound on her chest and nothing but him and his reassurance could close it, could heal it.

"I don't really know if that argument was why left, but I just want you to know that you're not to blame."

Her violet eyes look at him sharply.

"I know you blame yourself," the older student continued. "But you have to take into account a lot of other factors. I'm not saying you aren't important, but just that there's probably more to it. Let go of the guilt."

"I don't think I can," she confessed in a whisper, closing her eyes.

"Erina. You are enough. You have always been enough."


His gold eyes clashed against the Headmaster's black ones. His tongue was on fire, tingling, oversensitive. He could taste, he could feel every flavor to its maximum, overwhelming the muscle and his senses. Bruises marred his fingers, his wrists and upper arms. His hands were shanking and fingers twitching against the pain. The redhead breathed fast and heavy, trying to clear his mind and block the sensations running through his body that were overpowering.

"That will be all for today." And with those words, the older man turned around and left the student alone in the dim lighted training room.