Hey guys, I'm back for chapter 2. You should not expect this series to be daily, but it will probably be multiple times a week due to the chapters being on average, 5x shorter than a Typical chapter of Learning Love. With that, let's see the early days of Totsuki High change when Soma goes to Totsuki middle and is the 10th seat. Enjoy the read.

Soma had spent his 2 middle school years living at Polar Star like his dad had. He was quickly used to the antics of his upperclassman known as Isshiki Satoshi and 7th seat of the Elite 10. Fumio always went on about how the "old days" were beginning to return now that Polar Star had 2 Elite 10 members within it's aging walls.

Now it was time for Totsuki's infamous High School section. Soma had always heard that this is when things would get serious, and that students would start to drop like flies. He wasn't worried though. He was confident in his skills to say the least, becoming one of the 2 youngest members in the history of the Elite 10 Council along with his "secret" girlfriend Erina. Soma always put "secret" in quotes because although it was never confirmed officially, most of the student body had already concluded that they were an item. It had happened like this…

Flashback to the end of their first year at Totsuki Middle…

Soma was in his test kitchen that Erina had provided for him so that he could test recipes in private. He was working on this latest attempt to get the god's tongue to love his cooking, when the subject of his musings herself walked in with her ever loyal aide.

"What are you working on Soma-kun?" Erina asked

"Oh hey Erina-chan. Just perfecting the recipe that will make you finally admit that you love my cooking." Soma replied with his signature grin.

"That's what you said the last 17 times you tried and failed. What makes this time any different?" Erina asked with a grin of her own.

Soma's face took on an uncharacteristically serious expression, slightly surprising the young heiress.

"Because I think I finally figured out something my dad told me a while back…"

Flashback to before Soma entered Totsuki…

"Listen Soma, the secret to being a great chef is to find the woman you want to give all your cooking to."

Flashback End

"I didn't know what he meant at the time, but I get it now."

"What did he tell you?" Hisako asked

Handing Erina a bowl of Yukihira Style Fried Egg Tempura Don, Soma speaks.

"Eat this, and you'll understand."

So she ate. And ate. And ate. She was astonished by the flavors of the dish. This went above and beyond anything that she had tasted from him before. Not only were the flavors divine, but she could also taste something else. Warmth. Acceptance. Love. She could feel how much he cared about her in the dish.

They were dating from that day forward

Flashback End

At the opening ceremony, he had to give a speech as the one with the highest score on the advancement exams, barely edging out Erina by only 1 point. He made pretty quick enemies claiming that everyone in front of him was only destined to fight for third palace, behind him and Erina. There were some students that got fired up to take down the newest member of the Eliote 10, none more than the two former members that were edged out. Of course, there were some weaker willed students that admitted that this was probably the case.

Later that day, he was in his French Cooking class making Boeuf Bourguignon, a dish he had all but mastered years ago, with one of his dormmates, Megumi. They left the dish unattended for just a couple minutes, and when they got back, they realized they had been sabotaged. Having always had Soma there to help her through middle school, her grades were decent, and she was much less of a nervous wreck all the time. Though she was still pretty distraught over the incident. Soma however took it in stride and applied some of his quick thinking and used Honey to not only save the dish, but make the infamous Chapelle-sensei smile.

A couple weeks later, Soma was pulled into a shokugeki by a tanned skinned girl wearing nothing but very short jean shorts and a bikini top named Mito Ikumi for his 10th seat. Being a member of the Elite 10, challenges for his seat were pretty much constant, but this one would be more of a challenge than normal. Most of his requests were from talentless wannabes that probably wouldn't have survived Totsuki anway. However, he needed to be casuous with her. She had a reputation in middle school of being unstoppable with meat based dishes.

The theme of the shokugeki was set as beef. The day of the challenge, Ikumi came with her A-5 wagyu top round roast with creamy gravy. The judges ate it up and gave Ikumi very high praise. Soma came at it with Yukihira Style Chaliapin Steak Don. The judges couldn't stop eating it. The whole dish came together perfectly. Soma was declared the winner with a 3-0 sweep.

Things at Totsuki wouldn't calm down anytime soon either. Next was the first major challenge of the school year, the Totsuki Friendship & Rappaport Training Camp. Trust me, it sounds a lot nicer than it is. The students of past years refer to it as "The training camp from hell."

Although Soma being Soma, wasn't worried. It couldn't possibly be worse than that working in some of the high and low legend restaurants he worked in while traveling the world with pops, right? And so, Soma went to bed the night before, ready for what lies ahead of him. This would really be where his training at Totsuki begins.

So that's it for chapter 2. I know, it's short. Like i said before, this will be a shorter story and I will likely be glossing over or skipping all together, events that aren't major. I should have another chapter up soon. Thanks for reading.

Also yes, I did put a flashback within a flashback, we have to go deeper leo! Does anybody get that reference anymore? Oh well.