The scene was dark at first, but brightened to the sight of a bedroom.
...
"Dad? Where are you going? Don't leave mom, don't leave me, don't leave Megumi!"
A little boy with blue hair and cyber yellow eyes tugged on the sleeve of a man who stood at the entrance of a door.
The man patted the boy's head, said something inaudible, and closed the door behind him as he walked out.
...
The scene shifted to the sight of an inn. A sign read, "Shōkeien Ryokan"
In the kitchen, the same boy, who had matured some since his last appearance, now stood behind a cutting board, dicing a cluster of bok choy.
Next to him was a little girl, perhaps three or four years younger than he was, who was struggling to lift up a koi that had been caught earlier.
"Megumi, you silly goose, I said bring me some more bok choy, not a koi, hahaha!" The boy giggled as he took the koi and placed it back in a container with water.
"But onii-chan, doesn't the new recipe you're making need a koi in order to work?" Megumi asked with a slight lisp that many children her age would have.
"Yes you're right, it does, but everything has a process, cooking is one of things that really needs you to be organized. While I need the koi in order to finish cooking the recipe, I need to prepare the vegetables first to make the initial broth." The boy said as he booped Megumi on the nose and went to get more bok choy.
"Wow onii-chan, I didn't really get it but that's awesome! You're so cool!" She said joyfully with stars in her eyes.
"Hehehe, well I am your older brother, and older brothers have to be cool for their younger sisters!" The brother said as he rubbed his nose, smirking.
"Haru! The customer's are waiting!" A woman called out from the front.
"Coming, mom!... Okay Megumi, stand back and watch how cool your big brother can be!" Haru said as he cracked his fingers and picked up a knife.
As soon as Megumi was far back enough, Haru zoomed around the kitchen, slicing, dicing, seasoning, and mixing all kinds of ingredients as he added to the dish.
Within mere minutes, the dish had been completed, with an entranced Megumi looking onward with nothing but excitement.
"I'll call this one, Tadokoro House Special: Steamed Bok Koi!" Haru exclaimed as he left the kitchen with Megumi in pursuit.
…
The scene shifted again.
This time Haru, now an older teenager, was seen inside the Polar Star dormitory, which was of course at Totsuki Culinary Academy.
He wore a white, long sleeve polo shirt with the characters for his family's restaurant written in black on the back of the shirt, the collar had a pin on each corner that held the characters for "First Seat"
In front of him was an enraged young woman. She had purple eyes and dark blue hair that was tied into a ponytail by a ribbon and reached just below her tailbone. The back of her shirt had "Tsunozaki" written on it, the collar had pins that read, "Second Seat"
"AARGH I SHOULD'VE WON THAT SHOKUGEKI! HOW HAVE YOU BEATEN ME 12 TIMES ALREADY?!" The woman shouted into Haru's face.
"That's 13 times to you, Taki." Haru said, scratching the back of his head in annoyance.
"SHUT UP THAT'S NOT THE POINT! YOU MUST'VE CHEATED OR SOMETHING!" Taki yelled as she clenched her fists.
"HUH? THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM? I AIN'T NO CHEATER!" Haru finally retaliated.
"WELL YOU MUST HAVE DONE SOMETHING THAT WASN'T LEGAL IF YOU WON 13 TIMES IN A ROW, YOU BLUE HAIRED BASTARD!"
"MY PARENTS WERE ALREADY MARRIED WHEN THEY HAD ME, YA DAMN IRONING BOARD!" Haru shouted, pointing at Taki's bust, which was rather small.
"JAUNDICE EYED FREAK!" Taki screeched as she pointed at Haru's yellow eyes, her face taking on a dark shade of red.
"SHORT STACK!" Haru countered with his own screech.
"I'M NOT EVEN THAT MUCH SHORTER THAN YOU, MOTHERFU-" She hissed as she lunged forward, trying to pounce Haru.
"You two, please stop fighting, you'll wake up the whole dormitory!" Another girl pleaded as she tried separating the First and Second Seats.
She had pinkish, waist-length hair accompanied by a chest-length hair strand tied at the bottom by a white bow with small bangs covering her forehead, light-blue eyes and a significantly larger bust than Taki did. The collar of her shirt had the pins for "Fifth Seat" attached, with "Kikuchi" written on the back.
"Sonoka, save me from the stickbug demoness!" Haru begged as he cowered behind the pinkhead.
"Eh? B- B- But, senpai!" Sonoka asked, quivering as she faced what was no longer Taki Tsunozaki, but instead resembled a dark figure enveloped in a violet aura, which gave off a seething, more than intimidating vibe.
As the three students bickered back and forth, an older woman with some signs of aging sat in a rocking chair by the window. With an exhale, a puff of smoke came out of her mouth as she held on to a cigar.
"Ah, youth…" She wondered aloud.
...
The scene shifted once more.
A sandstorm enveloped the whole environment, relentless, unforgiving as debris crashed and tumbled across, threatening to take out anyone who stood in the way.
It was a barren, cold, wasteland.
In the distance a figure could be seen. He had dark, crimson hair, with a cloak that shielded him from the sand. In one hand he held a staff, most likely for support, and in the other, a lantern. One of his legs had been dragging behind the other, probably because it was broken, and his other leg seemed as if it was about to give out as well.
As he struggled to move forward, he was met with what seemed to be a large piece of debris, around the size of a bus. As it hurdled towards him, he tried dodging the imminent danger, but collapsed as his leg gave out.
The piece of debris had almost reached him when it was suddenly split in half, and tumbled past him in separate directions.
The man looked up to determine what, or who, had saved him.
In front of him stood another man, with navy blue hair and cyber yellow eyes. In his possession was a knife and nothing else besides his clothes. It seemed as if he cut the debris in half with his knife.
"Hey, you okay?!" The blue haired man asked out loud, the sandstorm nearly drowning him out.
"Uh- Y- Yeah, thanks for saving me!"
"No problem, what's your name?!"
"Joichirō Saiba, and you?!"
"Haru Tadokoro! You lookin' for something out here too, eh Joichirō?" He said as helped the crimson haired man up.
"Yeah, although I'm starting to lose faith I'll ever find it, it's nothing but a wasteland here!"
"Don't give up, man! I'm sure you'll find it, I haven't found what I'm looking for either, but I got the feeling I'm getting close! If that's the case I'm sure you'll find it soon too! Good luck!" Haru said as he began running, not walking, running, forward past Joichirō, as if the sandstorm had no effect on him at all.
"Some guy…" Joichirō marveled.
As Haru kept running, he dodged debris after debris, cutting through the ones too big for him to dodge immediately, and kept running.
Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his arm. He had been feeling these since before he ran into Joichirō and had been ignoring them. This one however, felt worse than the others.
He rolled up his sleeve to find the forearm splotched with purple, the arm was bleeding internally and it seemed to go up his arm.
He rolled up a pant leg and found his entire leg covered in purple, completely numb to the touch.
As he took off more and more of his clothes, he saw more and more purple until he decided to take off all his clothes.
His entire body was marked with purple and red. It was so bad that a single paper cut could cause all the blood to pour out of him at any moment.
*SLICE*
Haru looked at his forearm. It had been cut, and blood was gushing out at an alarming rate.
He felt himself slowly lose consciousness from the blood loss, but fought to stay awake.
"Gotta... find... the…" He mumbled as he finally passed out.
…
…
Haru woke up with a start, yet while he could feel he was awake, it was still pitch dark.
Feeling some kind of cloth on his face, he removed it and realized it was a blindfold.
"Hey...wake u…wake up!"
"What the hell-"
"We're here, Haru." A feminine voice said.
Haru rubbed his eyes, and focused his eyes, everything was a little blurry at first, but soon cleared up.
"Who're you?"
"It's me, Erina Nakiri, third year at Totsuki Culinary Academy- or have you forgotten everything you've done to me already?" She huffed in annoyance.
In front of him stood a young woman, she had purple-pinkish eyes and long, honey blonde hair that flowed just above her lower back. Her side bangs partially crossed her cheeks and went down all the way to her neck. He took note of her ample chest and slim waist, and wondered if this beauty really was just a teen in her third year of highschool.
Then it all came back to him.
'Ah right, I went back to Totsuki, it was a long flight but the peanuts were pretty good. I was going to see Megumi, but then the old geezer called me to take care of his precious brat… who is now standing right in front of me after we've arrived in France.'
He bolted out of his seat, startling Erina, and grabbed the luggage in the upper compartment, stuffing the blindfold in a pocket.
"Right then, let's go." He said.
...
As they both emerged from the jet, Haru let out an exhalation as he marveled at the new country that was France, in all its glory during the crisp winter morning.
"Well damn, is that the Eiffel Tower in the distance?! Sick!" He exclaimed.
"Have you not been to France?" Erina asked.
"Nope, not once in all my years, don't ask me why, I have no idea. It always just seemed to escape me. I've been to Germany, England, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Poland, all of Scandinavia and basically all of Europe except- France." He said, counting his fingers as they descended the stairs.
Once they reached the bottom, a group of butlers and maids met them and took their luggage, telling them the luggage would be sent to their hotel and ready.
"How convenient, it must be nice to be rich." Haru said, rubbing his nose amidst the chilly climate.
"Hmph, there was better service when we visited London." Erina said, folding her arms.
"Erina-chan! And a random guy!" A voice called out.
Haru and Erina squinted to see who was approaching them.
He had black hair with gray eyes and wore a striped dress shirt under a sweater vest with a scarf wrapped around his neck.
"Asahi!" Erina said as she went to greet him.
"How have you been?" She asked.
"I'm alright, I've been traveling the world, I happened to be here when Dad and Mana called to tell me you were coming. Speaking of which, who's the bluehead? He kinda looks like the girl from BLUE."
"I'm her legitimate brother, Haru." Haru said as he stood in front of Asahi.
Haru eyed Asahi and looked him up and down.
"So you're the literal bastard who tried marrying his own half sister huh? You don't look that menacing…" He wondered out loud.
"Shut up Haru! He didn't know I was his sister at the time, and neither did I!" Erina shouted.
"It's alright, Erina. If he has a problem with me, we can just settle it with a Shokugeki, right Haru?" Asahi said calmly.
"I mean I was just making sure I got my facts straight, I got no problem with you. But if you want a match, that's fine with me. The Little Nakiri can be our judge." He teased.
"Wha?! Me? B- But-" Erina said, flustered.
"Hoho, you seem like a very interesting person, Haru. What would you like to wager?"
"Well if I remember correctly, you stole- I mean, took opponents knives if you won the Shokugeki match right? I can give you my knife if you beat me, how's that?"
"Right, that's a practice I've given up on, but if you want to place your knife as the wager, I don't have a problem with it. And if you win?"
"I don't know, I guess you could tell me everything you know about Soma Yukihira and Joichirō Saiba." He said.
They shook hands with a bewildered Erina standing next to them, still trying to process that they had just landed from a 10 hour flight across the world, and were about to hold a Shokugeki at 6:30 in the morning.
A/n:
Hey guys! I was listening to some music while working on the Iron Bender, but then the Food Wars Opening started playing, and I got sudden motivation to work on Totsuki's Legacy, it's so weird, but that's what happened -_- Anyway, I decided to give you guys the first chapter of The Third Tier. I probably won't make another one anytime soon cause I'll be busy with the Iron Bender, and I started senior year of highschool(AP classes are a pain). If I get another bout of motivation to write Totsuki's Legacy, I may write up the chapter but I won't post it 'cause I want to finish them all at once, and not while I'm working on two Fanfics, that way my attention isn't split. Alrighty then, thanks for reading the first chapter of The Third Tier, I hope you guys enjoyed it, and as always I will see you in the next chapter, buh bye!
P.S Go check out the Iron Bender if you haven't yet, hopefully I can release the second chapter soon.