SailorStar9: After getting Chapter 31 out, this is Chapter 32 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts? So, please be a dear and read and review. Seriously guys, we need more obscure Sailor Moon crossover fics!
Disclaimers: Shokugeki no Souma and Sailor Moon belong to Tsukuda Yūto-sensei and Takeuchi Naoko-sensei respectively. Me, on the other hand, own absolutely nothing, except the pairings in this fic and plot, I hope.
Pairings: Unofficial!Takumi/Ami, Souma/Megumi later, established!Isami/Makoto
Chapter 32: To the Final Battleground
Some time later...
"The day's finally come." Souma declared, the now extended group had boarded the ship that would take them to their final destination.
"It was fast." Megumi nodded.
"But we're different from before." Takumi added. "Let's show Central how far our training's taken us."
"Yup, we've got a full team we can depend on now." Souma grinned.
"Mimasaka, I trust you've learned your lesson." Ami gave the copycat chef a sweet smile.
"Yes, onee-sama." Mimasaka nodded frantically.
"I'm actually scared to know what she did to Mimasaka." Takumi cast a fugitive look at Ami.
"Trust me, Aldini-chin." Kuga rested a hand on the blond's shoulder. "You don't want to know; just take note that it's always the quiet ones you have to look out for."
"You can see it now." Erina looked at the island coming into view. "That's Rebun Island, where we'll have the Team Shokugeki."
In the main arena...
"Honored guests." Urara started. "You can see the majestic Mount Rishiri Fuji next to Rebun Island. Against this gorgeous backdrop, your host for this final battle, is me, Urara, the idol of the 92nd Class. Director Azami is here, too. Next are the ignorant trash who foolishly oppose the noble Central, the hated rebels."
"Isshiki-senpai!" Yoshino gawked at the additional reinforcements Souma had brought in.
"Mimasaka Subaru." Daigo gaped. "Kuga Terunori. And to mention..."
"The former third Seat, Megishima Tōsuke?" even Marui was shocked.
"They managed to scrounge up the best allies they could find from the remaining students." Shōji was impressed.
"The final battle will be an even match between two teams of eight." Urara concluded. "First, let the teams come to an agreement as to how many should face in one round."
Both Erina and Ami nodded to each other, "How about three per round?" Erina proposed.
"Very well." Azami agreed.
"That was fast." Urara declared. "Let's have both teams select the three chefs who'll compete in the first round."
"How did you recruit Megishima, the former third Seat?" Mito asked Megumi.
Both Megumi and Ami looked at each other. "It wasn't easy." Megumi replied.
"You ex-students there." Urara barked. "There are special seats for you." she beamed.
"This is a prison." Yoshino twitched, the entire expelled group were locked in a cage.
"You're only spectating thanks to Azami-sama's mercy." Urara stuck out her tongue. "Be grateful. All right, we have our first bout's chefs."
"Megishima Tōsuke." Marui blinked when the screen flashed the former third Seat's name.
"Isshiki-senpai." Sakaki blinked.
"There's Yukihira." Yoshino pointed out.
"Isshiki, let's take it on like we're trying to crush the whole lot of them." Megishima suggested.
"I'm cheered by your motivation, Megishima." Isshiki chuckled.
"As for Central..." Urara turned to the screen.
"The new fifth Seat." Shōji spotted Megishima's opponent.
"Kaburagi Shoko." Daigo added.
"Isshiki-senpai's opponent will be the eighth Seat, Shiratsu Jurio." Ibusaki remarked.
"And Yukihira will be up against..." Mito blinked.
"The sixth Seat, Kinokuni Nene." Hisako supplied.
In the cooking arena...
"So you're my opponent, Yukihira Souma." Nene adjusted her glasses. "I apologize beforehand if I were to make you cry."
"Don't be too hard on me." Souma grinned.
On the sidelines...
"The sixth Seat." Sakaki started. "It's a higher rank than Isshiki-senpai's former seventh Seat."
"If I remember correctly, her specialty is..." Yoshino frowned.
"Japanese cuisine in general." Erina answered. "Her family runs a soba restaurant in Kanda. Their top-notch establishment has safeguarded the tenets of Edo soba for generations."
"She's also well-versed in classic dance, calligraphy, and the zither." Ami supplied. "Naturally, she has received exhaustive instructions in tea ceremony, kaiseki, and other aspects of Japanese cuisine. Her soba-making skills, are without a doubt, among the best in the country. She is considered a gift to the world of Japanese cuisine; a thoroughbred in very sense of the world."
In the cooking arena...
"Each match's topic will be chosen by raffle." Urara gestured to the inflatable grab cube. "Draw one, please."
"I defer to you, Kinokuni-senpai." Souma offered.
"I don't mind if you do." Nene handed the choice back to Souma. "I'd like to have a clean, fair fight, unlike Eizan. But I'll say this much, don't think that I'm limited to soba and Japanese cuisine, Yukihira Souma. Whatever culinary genre you may draw, I will still crush your dish."
"Nice trash talk." Souma smirked. "I'll go ahead and draw, then." he reached in and snatched up a slip of paper; his theme being soba.
On the sidelines...
"Well, who didn't see that coming?" Ami noted amusedly.
In the cooking arena...
"The third match's topic is Kinokuni Nene's specialty, soba." Urara bragged. "The Elite Ten is even closer to victory now."
"Yukihira!" Mito and Hisako fumed.
"What's with your bad luck?" Mito whined.
"You're a miracle worker as always, Souma." Isshiki remarked, he and Megishima had also picked their topics. "As for me, it seems it'll be the eel."
"The topic has been decided." Urara spoke. "There's no point in waiting. Let's start. The Team Shokugeki has begun. The first bout of the Team Shokugeki will now begin. You have two hours. The three matches will proceed in parallel. Chefs, please proceed to the food storage unit adjoining the arena. The basic staples are available onstage, but more specialized ingredients can be found there. You're also allowed to bring your own ingredients. Our honored guests will soon arrive, too. Our chefs have begun cooking." she noted. "Only Yukihira Souma has yet to return."
On the sidelines...
"Nice smell." Hayama's nose picked up the aroma of Nene's kneaded dough.
"She's already starting to make the soba dough." Kurokiba noted.
"That's a big wooden bowl." Isami remarked.
"Very authentic." Takumi agreed.
"First comes the hydration step." Erina explained. "Water is added to sifted buckwheat flour, then mixed in by hand to hydrate the whole mixture."
"It's coming together quickly." Marui noticed.
"She's efficient." Ibusaki gawked.
"I've never seen such elegant execution." even Sakaki was awed.
"It's almost like you're watching an artisan, instead of a chef." Megumi was stunned.
"The soba granules have grown to the size of fava beans." Marui noted.
"She's entering the gathering stage, where the dough is brought together into a ball." Ibusaki added
"You can tell that the dough is coming together and gaining elasticity." Hayama remarked.
"It's hard to believe she's doing all that with sticks for arms." Kurokiba stated. "What strength."
"The secret is in her lower body." Ami explained. "Look closely; she has firmly grounded herself and is transferring the energy from her feet to the dough through her legs and waist. Because she's mixing the dough so thoroughly, there's no need to added more water than necessary. It's 100% authentic soba with the minimum possible water content. There is a saying in the soba-making world: three days to master the knife, three months to master the rolling pin, and three years to master the mixing bowl. This refers to the length of time required to master each step in the process. You can just tell by observing how she works: the mere weight of the years spent mastering her craft."
In the cooking arena...
"I've figured out." Souma settled on his dish. "This dish I'm going to make is this instant yakisoba."
On the sidelines...
"What's he saying now?" Yoshino gawked.
In the cooking arena...
"Guess I'll go with an 8:2 ratio for the buckwheat flour and wheat flour as the binding agent." Souma prepared to knead his dough.
"Instant yakisoba?" Nene was not impressed. "Really? Yukihira Souma, that's how you've been winning so far, right? With impulsive creativity, rapid-fire ideas, and maybe offbeat bluffs? But this time, it won't work. Only the accumulation of time and history can the beauty of soba shine. And you lack both. Don't think for a second that you can beat me in soba."
"Time and history, huh?" Souma grinned. "Thanks for the advice, Kinokuni-senpai. But all I'm doing here is making a soba dish that really represents who I am. Modern-day noodle-making machines are amazing." he started flattening his dough with the dough sheeter. "They make really nice noodles."
On the sidelines...
"He didn't give up, did he?" Sakaki was worried.
"Not yet." Kurokiba was confident.
"He's not that weak." Hayama agreed.
"Yukihira hasn't thrown the fight." Erina insisted. "He's quietly waiting for his chance. Though 'handmade noodles' are highly sought after in the soba and udon world, the noodles aren't good because they're handmade. They're good because they were made skillfully by hand. There are highly-regarded restaurants who only do the hydration step by hand and do the rest by machines. The phase 'machine-made' is better than poorly-done handmade' is common knowledge among soba aficionados."
In the cooking arena...
"Good job." Isshiki peered at Souma's work. "You're calm, Souma."
"What about your cooking, Isshiki-senpai?" Souma looked up.
"Don't worry about me." Isshiki smiled. "Cheering on your teammates is part of teamwork."
"Ishhiki!" Shiratsu barked. "I ask that you refrain from being distracted. Cooking is an art that also encompasses our behavior during the cooking process. We, ourselves, are part of our work. Face me, and let us create one work of art together. You can I can do it. Let's weave together the ultimate competitive performance, the sessione."
"Sorry, what's your name again?" Isshiki wondered.
On the sidelines...
"Isshiki!" Rindō snapped. "You make me sad. You should at least remember the names of your classmates.
"Rindo-senpai, wearing your hair up looks good on you." Isshiki beamed.
In the cooking arena...
"Can you stop chatting each other up?" Shiratsu cut in. "Very well, Isshiki. I'll etch my very existence into your heart with this match."
On the sidelines...
"It's not just Yukihira we need to worry about." Shōji gaped.
"We need to support Isshiki-senpai and Megishima-senpai as well." Yoshino nodded.
In the cooking arena...
"Jurio-senpai has begun to cook the eel." Urara announced. "The eel is seasoned with salt and pepper. To that, he's adding onions and garlic and white wine in a rondo. His techniques, trained in Italy, are exploding onstage."
On the sidelines...
"The Shiratsu family," Erina started explaining. "Has been tasked with providing food to the Italian consulate for generations. They are known far and wide in both Japan and Italy."
"He does have good skills." Hayama admitted.
"So, eel is the topic." Takumi noted. "And the opponent is skilled in Italian cuisine. This may be a tough match. It may come as a surprise to the Japanese, but eel dishes are mainstream in Europe. The eel matelote Kurokiba served in the Autumn Election semifinals is but one example."
"In southern Italy, it's traditional to eat eel during Natale, or Christmas." Isami took over.
"Shiratsu Jurio must be pretty confident in his eel dishes, too." Takumi remarked.
"What cuisine does Isshiki specialize at?" Alice wondered. "Based on his uniform he seems to be good at Japanese cuisine."
"Among eel chefs, there's a phase similar to the soba world's 'Three days to master the knife, three months to master the rolling pin and three years to master the mixing bowl'.." Kurokiba spoke. "'Three years to master the skewer, eight years to master the filet and a lifetime to master the flame." I'm not sure that Isshiki gut has that much skill."
In the cooking arena...
"Goofing off in the middle of a match." Jurio growled. "You're always like that. You never show your true colors and just wing everything. I have sincere respect for your talent, as much as Donato Gotoda-senpai, whom I admire. I have dreamed of the day you and I will flourish in Central side-by-side. Why won't you bend the knee to Director Azami? You're an idiot. A gaping idiot."
"He totally doesn't care." Souma gawked at the smiling Isshiki.
"Kinokuni!" Jurio demanded. "You tell him, too. Tell him he's a disgrace to his renowned family, the Isshiki Family."
On the sidelines...
"A disgrace to his renowned family?" Ibusaki echoed.
In the cooking arena...
"Talk about insults." Isshiki chuckled. "But it's true. I guess it's appropriate."
"Isshiki, do you have no pride?" Jurio barked. "I heard you were removed from the seventh Seat and that you continued to stay at some place called Polar Star Dormitory, a hangout for riffraff. I say this for your sake. As a member of the Isshiki family, you should not be mingling with such lowlifes."
On the sidelines...
"Woo..." Ami whistled. "Now he's done it. Shiratsu really shouldn't have said that."
"What do you mean?" Takumi asked.
"Just continue watching." Ami smiled serenely.
In the cooking arena...
Isshiki secured his eel with a skewer on the chopping board. "Shiratsu, was it let's have some quiet, shall we?" with a single slash, he sliced the eel into half.
On the sidelines...
"What the hell?" Kurokiba was stunned at the older male's skill when the eel started bleeding a split second later. "it was like the severed blood vessels took a while to realize they had been cut."
"It's been so long since I've seen Satoshi-nii in serious mode." Ami grinned.
In the cooking arena...
"Is that all you can do?" Isshiki tsked. "My, my. Regardless what you say to me, I didn't think you'd run your mouth about everyone at the dorm. Fine, I've made up my mind. Shiratsu, maybe I'll be serious about crushing you."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-nes is regretted. *Grins* Don't you just love plot bunnies sometimes? Reviews are much appreciated.