Ryo and Ryu are not the same. Half my brain says yes, though. So, if you see a "Ryu" somewhere, I am sorry.
There was a time Ryo thought he was the best chef in the region.
Those were the days that he spent at the pub by the sea. The days when he was just a scruffy orphan with an exceptional talent in cooking. He remembered that the workers had put him just on cleaning duty for months, which he hated. One day, they had gotten tired of his complaining and, as a joke, put him to cook in the kitchen. Ryo knew that he was expected to fail. But he showed them. He was lucky that the manager was there to taste his dish as well, or he would have been back to cleaning the place again. He even became the head chef a few months later, finally being able to whip his fellow workers into shape.
People called him things like "exceptional", "talented at such a young age", and "the best thing to ever happen to this side of town". Of course, he showed how prideful he was by running a tighter ship. But once everything was closed and he was left alone on the pier, he would let his mouth turn into a huge grin as he stared out at the water.
At the time, he felt like he even had the power to walk on water.
However, someone came around and dragged him down deep beneath the surface.
That person was Nakiri Alice. At first, Ryo paid no mind to the girl who happened to be the same age as him. Well, at least he tried not to. Alice was persistent, annoying him almost all the time, commanding him to respect her. She even had the audacity to demand that he should be her aide. It was only a matter of time before Ryo got fed up and ended up against her in a cooking battle.
The first time she won, he considered it a fluke. Maybe he was having a rare off day. But she kept on winning each and every battle after that. Even at his young age he could tell that he wasn't having that many off days. For months, he would focus on getting better, cooking up new meals and having customers taste his creations. They all told him that they were great, but he knew that they weren't in the end because Alice would always beat him.
He never knew how deep he was into his goal until he broke the surface almost two years later with a win.
He took so many deep breaths, recovering the air he had lost for so long in the struggle to come out on top. He felt triumphant, euphoric even as he saw his name on all three of the judges' cards. He turned back to the girl who had kept him submerged for so long.
"We're doing this again!" She told him before running off to wherever she came from.
For a while, he wanted to say no to the next challenge. He was tired. He wanted to just go back to running his pub like normal. But he had been in the water for so long. Being on the safety on land didn't seem to cut it for him anymore. He had grown to love the thrill of the fight and how good it felt to succeed after such a hard battle.
Ryo realized that he didn't want to walk on water anymore.
So when Alice came to ask him again to be his aide, he looked into the deep red pools of her eyes and gave her a different answer than before.
"I'll go with you, Miss."
Ryo didn't know how deep he was going to go, but he didn't mind exploring it with the girl who started it all.