2nd Day of Hell
Breakfast was pretty uneventful as usual but still Soma couldn't help but feel excited and sad at the same time. Today he would have to do something he really hated doing. Gin had told him that one of his favourite chefs had actually stagnated. Stagnating for a chef was bad. It could almost been seen as regression in a way and it pained Soma that one of his favourites had gone down that path. There was an efficient but brutal method of helping someone like him with his stagnating and that was having Soma absolutely destroy him in a shokugeki to make him realise the massive gap in skill between the two of them but to do so he would have to actually get serious. If he treated the shokugeki with Shinomiya with the same seriousness he treated all the tasks in this camp he would lose no doubt. Shinomiya was one of the few people that could come close to beating Soma when he was trying his hardest which was exactly why he was one of Soma's favourite chefs. He would have to win by a landslide so that Shinomiya would try even harder than before try harder in order to surpass Soma. But Soma would have to find somewhere private with not a lot of witnesses to that the mans' ego wouldn't be hurt too badly. Sighing Soma dragged himself out of bed to prepare for his next task.
When he walked into the kitchen it was unusually quiet which was probably due to the fact that this teacher was extremely well known for expelling students for even the smallest of mistakes. He looked towards the middle of the room and Soma saw Shinomiya Koijiro leaning on his sofa with his hand on his head at an angle that caused the lights to reflect off his glasses giving a very serious and scary look but Soma just couldn't hold back a smirk knowing that the chef was doing it on purpose and on the inside he was actually a big softie. As the clock hit 9:00 exactly Shinomiya stood up and slapped a piece of paper on the outside of the door before locking it. He then turned to face the silent students and said in his usual cold voice
"My task for you today is actually pretty easy. I want you to use my recette and make my Nine vegetable terrine. The ingredients can be found in the back of the kitchen. Now before you start, I have two rules. Number 1 you are under no circumstance allowed to change or modify the dish in any way, shape or form. Number 2 you are not allowed to help each other whatsoever. In the kitchen it's everyman for themselves. Any questions? No? You may start."
As he finished talking all the students rushed towards the back of the kitchen where all of the ingredients were located. Soon everyone apart from a few stragglers had all their ingredients. Noting that Megumi was one of the few people without ingredients Soma frowned a little than smiled glad that his job would be a little easier. It was peacefully quiet for a little while before Shinomiya spoke again.
"Oi. You two boys in the middle." He said pointing to the students in question "Expelled."
"What! Why!?" the boy one the left cried out.
"Your buddy there helped you didn't he?"
"What? No! All he did was remind me to not boil the cabbage for too long."
Hearing the pink haired chef rolled his eyes " That is helping is it not?"
Both boys was silent for a moment before begging Shinomiya
"Please chef let me stay. I can do anything."
"If you can do anything you can get out." Shinomiya scoffed
Seeing that the battle was lost the two boys packed their tools and left the classroom with tears streaming down their faces.
"Let that be a reminder to all of you. I was not kidding about the no helping." Shinomiya warned.
After watching the confrontation between the chef and the two boys no one spoke again. Then suddenly it was Megumi's turn to present her terrine. Soma watched silently as Shinomiya took a bite of the dish.
"Expelled." he said after he finished analysing the dish.
Megumi broke down in tear and asked with a shaky voice
"Why chef?"
Shinomiya frowned before answering her
"There was nothing wrong with your dish. In fact it tasted great. But you used vinegar to give the cabbage a whiter colour correct?"
Megumi nodded
"I'm pretty sure I said earlier very clearly that you were not to modify the dish under any circumstances."
"But if I didn't use the vinegar the dish would have been unpresentable because of the oxidation of the cabbage." Megumi countered
"And whose fault is it for not being quick enough to grab fresh ingredients?" Shinomiya asked as he raised an eyebrow. This time Megumi didn't say anything.
Deciding that now was the time Soma spoke up
" I still it's unfair to expel her chef." Soma said very loudly
"Why is that Yukihira?" Shinomiya asked turning towards the red hair.
"Well you know how you are meant to treat us like your own employees right?" seeing Shinomiya nod Soma continued
"If this was Shinos these cabbages wouldn't even be here. You're supposed to make sure all the ingredients are good quality."
Shinomiya was silent for a bit as he contemplated what the boy said in his head. 'He does have a point. If one of my chefs from Shinos ordered something like that I would have fired them for being dumb.'
"Alright then, what do you suppose we do?" he asked.
"Easy." Soma replied. "Me you shokugeki. If I lose me and Megumi both get expelled if I win you let both of us stay."
"What? Soma kun it's ok just let me be expelled." Megumi said quietly as tears raced down her cheeks "You can't beat an alumnus you don't have to do this for me."
"It's ok Megumi. I'm doing this because I want to." Soma said soothingly
Shinomiya pondered this suggestion for a little bit. He knew from the moment that Soma walked up to him he would challenge him to a shokugeki but it didn't mean he actually wanted to fight Soma. As he tried to think of a way to refuse Soma's challenge Dojima Gin suddenly stepped out of the shadows.
"Shinomoya as you know the rules of Shokugeki do apply to all Totsuki alumnus." Gin said quietly
"Fine." Shinomiya reluctantly agreed. "After class come to the underground kitchens we shall have the shokugeki there."
A few hours later in the underground kitchen.
All the Totsuki alumnus gathered came to watch the Shokugeki between a former first seat of Totsuki and the son of Saiba Joichiro.
"Are all the participants and the judges ready?" Gin asked from the centre of the room.
After getting nods and confirmations from Donato Gotoda, Sekimori Hitoshi and Mizuhara Fuyumi he turned back to the two chefs standing by their stations.
"This is will be an unofficial shokugeki match between Yukihira Soma and Shinomiya Koijiro. You can cook anything but try to stick with vegetables as the main theme. The time limit is two hours. You may begin."
The two chefs began their cooking as the others watched from the side-lines and Megumi couldn't help but feel nervous. 'This shokugeki is my fault. I can't let Soma kun get expelled because of me. I have to think of something anything.' Megumi thought as she started panicking and start to write the man kanji on her hand. She stopped suddenly as she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to find herself face to face with Dojima Gin.
"Relax Tadokoro this would have happened regardless of whether you were there or not." Gin said trying to calm the young girl down.
"What do you mean senpai?" Megumi asked visibly confused
"This shokugeki was all planned." Gin replied
"Wait what? So even if I passed Soma kun would have challenged Shinomiya senpai anyways?"
"Yep. You being expelled just gave Soma an excuse to challenge Shinomiya."
"But why would Soma kun need to challenge Shinomiya senpai? That's so reckless even for him."
"He is doing this to help Shinomiya."
"But how can he beat Shinomiya senpai not only is he an alumns he is also a former a first seat."
"You underestimate the ability of young Yukihira although that is probably a good thing. Although you must never tell anyone what happened inside this room."
Megumi could only nod numbly as she tried to understand what Gin had said. Apparently Soma was not only good but good enough to beat a former first seat and he was only a first year. The thought blew her mind away.
Finally the two chefs had finally finished cooking and Shinomiya was first up to present his dish.
"My vegan chou farci." Shinomiya said as he presented the dish to his fellow alumni
"What a strong aroma that whets ones appetite!" Gotoda excliamed
"This vegetable stuffing is definitely quite different from your normal chour farci." Hitoshit noted
"The morels and asparagus and fois gras just melt in your mouth and coast your tongue with flavour. What a wonderful texture." Fujyumi said
Soma walked up next.
"This is my potatoes dauphinoise please enjoy." Soma said as he calmly presented the dish to the judges.
This time however there was no comments from the judges.
"You see now brat I'm simply just too good for you. Don't waste my time." with that Shinomiya began walking out of the room.
"Wait." said Fuyumi from her seat. "It's the other around senpai Yukihira's dish is much much better than yours." The other two alumni nodded at her words.
"What? Then why didn't u say anything?" questioned Shinomiya with disbelief clear on his face.
"His dish was just so good it couldn't be described using words. Maybe a writer or poet could describe it but we simply do not have the vocabulary." Hitoshi said
"You hear that senpai if you don't keep improving I'm going to go to Paris one day and take Shinos from you with a shokugeki." Soma said cockily with his trade mark grin.
"Just you wait brat. Next time I WILL beat you." Shinomiya said walking out and for the first time in a long time Gin could see a fire in his eyes as Shinomiya found a new purpose and new goal to strive to in cooking.
"Well since the winner of the Shokugeki is Yukihira Soma Tadokor Megumi will no longer be expelled from Totsuki academy." Gin announced
"Thank you so much Soma kun." Megumi said as she ran and embraced Soma in a hug.
"No problem Megumi anytime." Soma said
"Now you two off to the hotel. You still have one last trial tomorrow to prepare for." Gin said as he lead everyone outside.
As soon as they left the basement Megumi and Soma's phone erupted with notification from the group chat. Seeing this both of them sweat dropped.
"We should probably go back Megumi we haven't had any contact with the others for more than two hours." Soma said
Megumi nodded and both of them walked back to the hotel.
Marui's hotel room
Soma and Megumi walked into the room where they knew everyone was waiting and as soon as they entered they were bombarded with questions.
"Where you guys?"
"Did you guys really have a shokugeki with an alumnus?"
"How are the two of you still here?"
Before the duo could answer any of their questions they hear Gin's voice coming from the hotel speakers.
"Students from Totsuki gather at the hall in your uniform in fifteen minutes."
Baffled the gang went back to their own rooms and changed into their uniforms and began making their way to the hall.
"Wonder what this is for." Yuki said as the grouped walked.
"Probably tomorrow's task. We have only have one so it's probably very hard and they need to do lots of explaining." Shun replied as they left the elevator and arrived at the hall.
Once all the students were gathered Gin began talking.
"Tomorrow is your last day here at the training camp and when you will participate in your last task. The task is to design a breakfast that can be served buffet style for the judges tomorrow morning. You may use the various kitchens in the hotel to test your recipes or if you want you are also allowed to test in your rooms. There is no cuisine restriction and the main ingredient is egg."
Marui and Yuki both face planted onto the ground as they realised they wouldn't be getting any rest.
Hearing the last sentence Soma looked around the hall and caught the eye of Erina and gave her a wink and grinned as her cheeks reddened into a blush.
"Well you guys have fun testing your recipes I'm going to bed." Soma said already knowing what he'll be making the next day.
"Are you sure Soma kun? Don't you want to taste your dish at least once?" Megumi asked
"Don't worry Megumi my dish was approved by the God Tongue after all." Soma said already halfway out of the room. "Have fun and try to not stay up too late."
Boom the new chapter is done. Honestly i dont really think this chapter was written well at all so if u guys find any mistakes or are confused or have any questions about anything let me know in the reviews so i can fix it. Enjoy