SailorStar9: After getting Chapter 34 out, this is Chapter 35 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 35: What We Want to Protect
Flashback to one month before the Team Shokugeki...
"So yeah, we're basically fighting the current Elite Ten to reclaim control of the Elite Ten." Souma had Isshiki on the line on loudspeaker. "We're doing this Team Shokugeki where we fight in teams. The reason I called is, I was wondering if you'd join up with us rebels."
"Yup, I'm actually already in Hokkaido because I planned to do just that." Isshiki answered. "I was already in cahoots with Jochiro and Chef Dojima. Looks like the plan to lure out Director Azami worked."
"Took you long enough to contact me." Kuga chided. "I heard everything from Isshiki. You can't start a party without Kuga Terunori."
"I owe you." Mimasaka responded. "I'll get right to work on visualizing the overthrow of the Elite Ten."
"That's great, Souma." Megumi beamed. "Now we have seven people for the Team Shokugeki."
"Might as well get our last guy to agree, too." Souma nodded.
"He would be a powerful ally." Erina agreed. "But this might prove to be a difficult mission. Because..."
"Hello, Megishima-senpai?" Souma made his call.
"I decline." Megishima answered.
"Seriously?" Souma muttered.
"Who didn't see that coming?" Ami joked mildly.
In the rebel group's break room...
"For the upcoming second bout, we should use the best we have." Alice argued.
"No, we should consider saving some of our best for last." Marui protested.
"You just don't get it." Alice pouted. "This is basic battle strategy."
"What the heck kind of equations are those?" Hayama was confused.
"Hayama, there's no sense in trying to talk to her." Kurokiba sighed.
"I wonder which of the Elite Ten will show up next." Isami was worried.
"The enemy should be panicking after that first bout." Mito pointed out. "I won't be surprised if Tsukasa Eishi or Kobayashi Rindō showed up next."
"The first and second Seats?" Sakaki echoed.
"What are we going to do, Erina-cchi?" Yoshino wailed.
"With Team Shokugeki rules, a strategy like the sacrificial captain that's used in kendo doesn't work at all." Erina agreed.
"Even if we're able to get a decent amount of victories, if the enemy still has the top members of the Elite Ten, there's still a possibility they could turn things completely around." Hisako explained.
"Correct." Erina nodded. "With the top members, we need to try to win, no matter what."
"I'll go on whenever you need me." Megishima stated.
"But you just finished the first bout, Megishima-senpai." Megumi pointed out. "That's be two in a row."
"That's fine." the third-year assured. "That's not enough to burn me out."
I don't want to stop this momentum we have from winning the first bout. Erina mused. The next three we should send in are... "What are your thoughts, Hakuizumi-dono?"
"I already have an idea." Ami answered. "And from the looks of it, you have one, too. How about this; the two of us write down our strategy in under five words and show them to the other?"
"Very well." Erina agreed. "On three." she instructed after the two females wrote down their respective plans on paper. "Three!"
"As I expected." Ami grinned, flashing her slip of paper which she had written down 'exhaustion', Erina's piece of paper reflecting the same.
One hour later...
"Now that our one-hour break is over, the second bout is finally about to begin." Urara welcomed everyone back. "I wonder what the next battle will bring. The three judges will continue to be the three Bookmen from the WGO. First up, we have our next three contestants from the loathsome rebels. And here are our three contestants from the Elite Ten."
On the sidelines...
"Get your asses out!" Kuga snapped, as Tsukasa Rindō and Saitō stepped out.
"Unbelievable, we have the first, second and fourth Seats." Urara declared. "They're so intense. These are the match-ups as determined by the cards prior to the match."
In the arena...
"Yo, Megishima." Rindō greeted. "Let's have a good match."
"My name is Saitō Sōmei." Mimasaka faced his opponent. "I walk down the culinary path. If you stand in my way, I shall cut you down."
"You're rather amusing." Saitō chuckled. "Very well."
"Hey, Kuga." Tsukasa told the Chinese expert. "Looks like you got your wish."
On the sidelines...
"Kuga-senpai is up against Tsukasa Eishi?" Shōji gaped.
"This is going to be one hell of a match." Daigo remarked.
In the arena...
"Let us find out what we'll be cooking from the lottery." Saitō stated. You can go ahead and draw, rebels."
"I wanna draw it." Rindō insisted. "I wanna play that lottery."
"I'm sorry about this, Megishima." Saitō apologized, letting Rindō have her way.
"Don't worry about it, Saitō." Megishima assured.
"We were both fellow members of the Elite Ten just the other day." Saitō recalled. "To think that now we're enemies facing off in a Shokugeki."
"Chefs can have many virtues." Megishima noted. "This isn't that surprising."
"Even then, you always walked down your own path." Saitō reminded. "So it was surprising that you ended up lending a hand to those juniors."
"You're not the only one who's surprised." Megishima admitted.
"The ingredient for the second card is cayenne pepper." Urara declared after Rindō picked the topic. "And the third card is tuna. As for the first card, it's green tea."
On the sidelines...
"Green tea?" Marui echoed.
"How, though?" Yoshino was confused. "Are they going to compete to make the best tea?"
"No, I believe they're supposed to make a dish that best utilizes the scent and taste of tea leaves." Sakaki reasoned.
"This would be pretty easy to imagine with Kinokuni Nene, since she specializes in Japanese cuisine." Alice noted.
"It's hard to imagine how it'd be used with Kuga's Sichuan dishes or Tsukasa Eishi's French cuisine." Mito frowned.
In the arena...
"Let the preparations begin!" Urara started the cook-off.
On the sidelines...
"A dish using green tea?" Megumi blinked.
In the arena...
"All right." Kuga made his decision. "Guess I'll get things started."
On the sidelines...
"Kuga-senpai is in action." Yoshino gushed, as Kuga started dicing his slab of pork shoulder.
"He's already got an idea despite the difficult topic?" Marui was impressed.
In the arena...
"I expected nothing less from you, Kuga." Tsukasa praised. "Chinese cuisine demands a variety of cooking methods, which makes a chef rather flexible. It's a waste to not have you in the Elite Ten anymore."
"Give that crap a rest, Tsukasaan." Kuga scoffed, heating up his wok. "Like you ever cared about anyone."
On the sidelines...
I'm counting on your, Kuga-senpai. Souma prayed, recalling the confrontation between Kuga and Tsukasa in the corridor.
In the arena...
"I should start concentrating too." Tsukasa looked at the tea leaves in his hand.
"Cayenne pepper, huh?" Megishima looked at the slip of paper.
"Come on now." Rindō had already prepared her ingredients. "Do you really have time to hesitate? Let's do this, Megishima."
On the sidelines...
"What is that?" Yoshino gawked at Rindō's chosen main ingredient. "Is that actually food?"
"No way." even Hisako was shocked.
"It's still alive, even." Mito gaped.
"An alligator?" the girls chorused.
In the arena...
"Don't make him eat you." Rindō grinned.
On the sidelines...
"Alligator meat?" Marui blinked. "She's not possibly thinking of using that in a Shokugeki, is she?"
"That must mean she's pretty confident." Sakaki blinked.
"Of course she is, you stupid rebels." Urara mocked. "Rindo-senpai is a kind of chef you rarely see, even at Tōtsuki. She's a true master of rare ingredients."
"Rindō-san, your main ingredient just disappeared." Ami pointed out.
"Come on, don't do that." Rindō chided, reclaiming the escaped alligator.
In the arena...
"Megishima," Rindō returned to her workspace. "I had a lot of fun when we were both in the Elite Ten. But now that we're enemies, I'm going to crush you without a second thought."
"Sure, I plan on doing the same." Megishima returned. "Come with everything you've got, Kobayashi."
"Now then, little guy." Rindō drew her knife. "I'm going to thank you for offering up your life. Good." she grinned, slaughtering the alligator. "You've got some excellent meat on you."
On the sidelines...
"She managed to kill it and drain it in an instant?" Sakaki gaped.
"How is she able to butcher it so fast?" Mito gawked.
"Scaling, skinning, trimming and butchering." Kurokiba stated.
"She used the optimal blade and technique for each part." Alice added.
"She's got excellent skills." Hayama admitted.
"The most amazing thing about Rindō-san isn't just her knife technique." Ami began. "It's her overwhelming knowledge of techniques in butchering and dressing meat, as well as her endless curiosity when it comes to new flavors."
In the arena...
"Bring it." Rindō grinned, mincing the alligator meat.
On the sidelines...
"Is that char sui pork?" Mito gawked at the tied up slab of pork in front of Megishima.
"Then the dish Megishima-senpai's trying to make is..." Yoshino beamed.
"Ramen?" Sakaki blinked.
"If Rindō-senpai is the rare ingredients master, then Megishima-senpai is a ramen master." Megumi declared.
In the arena...
"What I'm about to make is African ramen." Megishima announced.
On the sidelines...
African ramen? Souma, Takumi and Megumi wondered.
"The heck is that?" Megumi pondered.
"Does Africa even have ramen?" even Souma was confused.
"No idea." Takumi admitted.
"Guess all we can do is wait and see." Ami suggested.
In the arena...
"I see." Rindō grinned. "You always go all-out, Megishima. You always said that you had no interest in competitions. So what made you side with Yukihira Souma?"
"I was struck by his passion." Megishima answered. "Yukihira Souma's, that is." he recalled how a month ago, he had agreed to face-off against Souma in a ramen cook-off after Ami's request.
On the sidelines...
"He's putting garlic, onions, paprika, and ripe tomatoes in the soup." Kurokiba noticed Megishima rapidly chopping his ingredients.
"That's definitely going to bring out the flavor and acidity." Alice nodded.
"And that smell..." Hayama frowned. "It's chicken stock."
"Now he's dumping in the vegetables and drumettes and stewing it even longer." Mito added as Megishima added in more ingredients.
"When all the flavors finish blending together and connect, the soup will be complete." Hisako noted.
"His char sui pork is also worth mentioning." Ami supplied. "Megishima was using a special sauce which includes garlic, soy sauce sugar and sake. Well, granted the the original recipe came from Hakuizumi Archives, Megishima added an extra ingredient to the sauce: peanuts."
"What's with all those cayenne peppers?" Daigo gawked at the container holding the red peppers.
"I know his theme was cayenne peppers, but..." Shōji pondered.
"That'll turn everything super red." Sakaki pointed out.
"Megishima is using peanuts to try to bring out the deliciousness of the cayenne peppers to its very limit." Erina realized.
"Rindō-senpai's getting pretty far, too." Isami noted.
"Indeed." Takumi nodded. "She marinated the alligator meat, and now she's mixing the starch in."
In the arena...
"That smells good." Rindō grinned, dumping the marinated meat pieces into hot oil. "This is the best moment when the alligator meat is fried to a crisp. Though, I'm not sure how much I like using a wok, since I feel like I'm intruding into Kuga's territory. I'll let the alligator meat rest of a while." she drain the cooked meat of the oil. "Now, let's get the real party started."
On the sidelines...
"It's not just Megishima-senpai." Shōji exclaimed, seeing Rindō dump her cayenne peppers into her wok. "Rindō-senpai's doing it too."
"That's enough cayenne peppers to knock your socks off." Marui added.
In the arena...
"I knew it." Megishima chuckled. "Knowing your personality, I knew there was no way you'd make a refined cayenne pepper dish. I figured you'll dump all of those in there without thinking twice. So I knew I'd have to do something on par with that to keep up."
"I guess you do, though." Rindō grinned.
On the sidelines...
"There's a very distinct aroma rising up." Hayama noted as Rindō started frying the cayenne peppers.
"The capsaicin that makes the peppers hot is filling up the air." Alice blinked.
"I'm watching just watching them." Kurokiba remarked.
"They're both definitely going all-out." Isami stated.
"That just means they're both extremely confident." Takumi reasoned. "The confidence to take that colossal amount of spice energy and turn it into deliciousness."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-nes is regretted. *Grins* Don't you just love plot bunnies sometimes? Reviews are much appreciated.