Shokugeki no Sōma: Nashi Saito de Chīfu

by Gale-Dragon

Ever since he picked up a kitchen knife at age three, Sōma knew he wanted to be a chef. For twelve years, he cooked in the kitchen of his family diner. But he doesn't cook like you or me. No, he has his own cooking style, and that style will change the world of cooking forever. After all, Sōma's blind.

2. 2: First Class

Shokugeki no Sōma: Nashi Saito de Chīfu. Chapter 2; First Class

Betaed by The Undying Will

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Notes:

"Talking"

'Thinking'

(Author making comment)

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Gale-Dragon: To reviewer Puzzling, the blind chef on the Gordon Ramsey Show (or Master Chef) was named Christine Ha. In all honesty, I don't watch the show so I didn't know about her. So Thanks for mentioning her ;-).

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The Yukihira twins were walking down a hallway to Sōma's next class. The red head's cane scratched the floor every couple of steps.

"Mayu, you sure you're going to be able to do your online classes AND help with my plates here?" Sōma asked his twin sister as she looked for the classroom (or kitchen class).

Mayu smiled. "Don't worry Sōma, as long as I have a good connection to the internet, a computer, and complete all my work by the deadlines, I'll be fine."

Sōma smiled. "The Headmaster told us that the Polar Star Dormitory had a good internet connection, despite the fact that it's in a remote area. As long as we pass the dorm mother's challenge, we'll have room and board."

"I have my ingredients for that test, what about you?" Mayu asked as she found the room.

"I'm just going to wing it with whatever they have in the kitchen," Sōma said with a cheery smile.

Mayu muttered that her twin was way too much like their father.

~}i{~

Tadokoro Megumi was sitting in the corner of the classroom. She was very nervous, knowing that if she got another "E" then she'll get expelled from Totsuki. You see Megumi was in last place with her grades, and another bad grade will end her stay at the school.

'And after the entire village helped to send me here… No, I can't give up! I need to do this for all of them!' Megumi thought to herself as she watched a familiar redhead (with his white cane and what looked like a small brown briefcase) enter the room, followed by the brunette.

Megumi looked right at Sōma's eyes as the duo stood next to the teacher's desk. 'He really is blind!' the country girl thought. She remembered that glazed over pupil look from when her grandpa lost vision in his right eye, so she knew that the redhead wasn't faking his blindness.

"Beh, I bet he's faking being blind," whispered one of Megumi's classmates.

"Yeah, I mean, come on, blind people can't cook. They can't even see what they're doing," said another.

'No, he really is blind,' Megumi thought as she looked once again at the red head's eyes. The country girl quietly stood up and snuck along the wall to try to get away from all the rudeness and show the blind student that not everyone in the room was an idiot.

"What's that kid thinking coming to Totsuki? Blind people can't cook, he'll probably cut or burn himself if he tries."

"Totally, I mean like, seriously, blind people should only taste food, not, like, cook."

"The food industry doesn't need blind chefs."

"He'll be gone by the end of the day."

SLAM!

That shut everyone up right away.

Chapelle Roland just slammed his attendance sheet onto his desk.

'When did he walk in?!' thought the students.

He glared at the entire class when he said in a harsh tone "If you apprentices have enough time to badmouth a fellow student, then you have enough time to clean this entire kitchen by hand. Which all of you are going to do after class."

Now the class was trembling with fear.

"Tadokoro-san," Chapelle stated when he saw that Megumi was halfway to his desk.

The braided haired girl squeaked. "Y-y-yes!"

"You're going to be working with Yukihira-san," The teacher stated as he looked at his attendance sheet.

"Y-y-yes, sir!" Megumi stuttered out. Sōma smiled, placed the briefcase on the teacher's desk, and held out his hand. "I'm Sōma."

The redhead was holding his hand out to the air, ie, no one was in the direction of where his hand was. Mayu moved Sōma's arm in the direction of Megumi. "Oh, you're over there," the redhead chuckled out.

The country girl saw that even though he was blind, his eyes seemed to brighten up. She gave a small smile and shook his hand. "I'm Megumi."

~}i{~

Erina took a bite of a dish that her grandfather asked her to try. He said one of the new first years made the dish, telling her that this student had the potential to be a diamond chef.

To Erina, the dish tasted like a lively summer festival during a mellow, day at a beautiful sunset. She told her grandfather this.

"Oh, so you like the dish huh," Senzaemon asked with a smile.

"Yes, THIS is a dish worthy of Totsuki and has my highest regards," Erina said before taking another blissful bite.

'I think I'll tell her that Yukihira-kun made this dish in the future,' Senzaemon thought happily. He knew he needed to wait before Erina would realize how special the blind chef was.

~}i{~

Mayu was typing at a laptop as she sat at a desk in the corner in the front of the classroom. Since Sōma had a partner for this class, she didn't need to help him as much so she could work on her own work, but. The brunette glanced up from the screen to see her twin and the country girl place a slag of meat into an oversized pot.

The requirement for this class was to make Boelif Bourguignon or Beef Burgundy. A dish considered to be a staple in French cuisine. The teacher wrote the recipe for the dish on the board, but that was useless to Sōma, so Chapelle told the redhead the recipe (as Mayu recorded it). 'He should be fine for this class. Megumi's timid and a bit of a nervous wreck, but she's not going to sabotage Sōma in any way,' Mayu thought as her eyes went back to her laptop.

Megumi watched the pot as earnestly as she could, after all, they had 39 minutes until they had to take the beef out.

"Megumi-chan, we need to get the spices now, you mind helping me with that?" Sōma said as he felt the spice rack to find out where the spices were. He could smell the mellow scent of the spices, but it'll take him too long to find out which spice was which with just smell, especially since all the smells were mixing together. Megumi left the pot to help the redhead, she knew she needed to help him with the labels on the spices.

Two jerks decided to have some fun with the two. The rest of the class saw this but did nothing to stop them.

When Sōma and Megumi got back to their stove, the redhead smelt something.

"Megumi-chan, did you spill salt here or add some to the beef?" Sōma asked as he sniffed the air, there was a heavy scent of salt at the table. Megumi quickly noticed that the lid to the pot was slightly off. She paled and yanked the lid off. Now the country girl could smell the heavy salt.

There had to be an entire shaker of salt on their beef!

"Megumi-chan, what's wrong?" Sōma asked in curiosity, but as soon as he heard a couple of people snickering behind him, he realized what happened. 'Rotten Bastards! They dumped salt in our pot!' Sōma thought angrily.

"We have to start over," Megumi said sadly. She looked at the clock and realized that there wasn't enough time to make another one. They were going to get an "E" for sure now.

"Megumi," Sōma said getting the braided girls attention. "I have an idea that'll get us that "A" and teach those rotten pricks a lesson."

Megumi was listening.

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About 15 minutes later...

Everyone was just about finishing up. The jerks that dumped the salt in Megumi and Sōma's pot snickered. They couldn't wait until the pair flunked. The jerks just need to do the sauce and they'll be done.

"We'd like to check-in, sir!" Sōma said as Megumi placed their dish in front of Chapelle. The redhead smiled. "Dig in."

The teacher looked at the dish that looked like it was perfectly made. Chapelle pressed his fork on the meat, and it bounced back immediately. The French Chief was very impressed.

The rest of the students paled. How'd those two simmer the beef in such a short amount time?!

"How did you complete this dish?" Chapelle asked the duo.

Sōma held out a jar (Megumi turned the object so that the teacher could see the label), "Easy. I used honey. I rubbed it on the meat before we cooked it and added it to the seasonings afterwards too. The honey is rich in proteinase and enzymes that break down proteins." Sōma explained that he experimented with tenderizing meats as a kid and found that honey works the best and it had a longer shelf life.

Chapelle and Megumi took a bite of the dish. The taste from this dish was sooooooo amazing that The Chef That Never Smiles was grinning from ear to ear!

Chapelle put his fork down. "Yukihira, Tadokoro. I will give you an "A". However, *smirk* know that I am MOST disappointed that I do not have the power to give you a higher grade."

Sōma took off his bandanna and said, "Happy to serve!"

The rest of the class couldn't believe what they were seeing and hearing! The blind student got the highest mark possible from the strictest teacher in the school! How was this possible?! Even after he and his teammate were sabotaged?! The jerks who spiked Sōma and Megumi's dish accidentally added too much salt to their sauce (Talk about irony).

"Excuse me, professor," Mayu stated as she walked up to the teacher (after he finished with all the dishes). Chapelle looked at the girl and asked what she needed. Mayu placed her laptop on the professor's desk. "You might want to watch this. I would've vocalized this sooner but I was doing my classwork at the time and I just went over the recording."

Chapelle raised a brow and looked at the computer screen as the brunette pressed a button on the keyboard. What the professor saw caused him to emit a furious aura, the scary part was the fact that he kept a completely straight face.

Megumi was trembling with fear when she saw this as Sōma asked if the a/c died or something (he felt the burning aura from the professor, but since he's blind, he didn't see the aura).

"Tadokoro, Yukihira twins, you may leave the classroom," Chapelle stated in an eerie calm voice, before adding in a rather menacing tone. "The rest of you, STAY."

Megumi was more than happy to comply. Mayu handed Sōma his briefcase. The redhead took his collapsible cane out of his blazer pocket and pressed a button to straighten it back into a cane. The three left the room, leaving Chapelle to thoroughly scold/punish the rest of the class.

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As the three walked down the hallway, Megumi couldn't help but remember how Sōma was when he and she fixed their dish. Megumi recalled Sōma cutting and mixing the ingredients with such fluid movements. The way he cooks... it would be hard to believe that he was actually blind. Okay, he had to taste the food more often, but still...

"S-Sōma-kun," the country girl finally managed to vocalize.

"Yes, Tadokoro-chan?" Sōma asked as he stopped walking. Mayu stopped a few paces ahead of him. Megumi nervously asked how he learned to cook blind and quickly added that she was asking out of curiosity, not rudeness.

"I learned how to cook just like everyone else," Sōma said calmly, which in turn caused Megumi to stop.

Mayu then added. "Nii-san..."

The redhead told his twin that it was alright and added with a smile "After I lost my sight, I just changed a few things to what I learned to cope. It's not that big a deal, okay, so maybe I need someone to help with the plates a bit, but it's just fine. I don't have to worry about how the food looks so I can completely focus on the taste and texture of the food."

Megumi was completely moved. 'If he can overcome his blindness, then... Maybe... I can overcome my nervousness,' the braided girl thought with a smile.

Mayu quietly interrupted by saying "Ano…not to ruin the moment, but do you know where the Polar Star Dormitory is? We've asked nearly all of the staff here, but they don't seem to know where it is."

"Oh, I live at Polar Star, I can take you there," Megumi said almost happily, she thought it would be nice to have these two in the Polar Star Dormitory. The Yukihira twins thanked the country girl.

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About 30 minutes later... Erina and Hisako walked down the hallway towards the Nakiri mansion for a well deserved night's sleep. The two passed Chapelle's classroom. They stopped after a couple of passes before taking a few steps backwards to make sure they weren't seeing things. Yup, they were NOT seeing things.

All of Chapelle's students were cleaning the entire classroom, WITH TINY TOOTHBRUSHES.

'What the heck?' Erina and Hisako thought after blinking a couple of times.

"Oh, Nakiri, Arato, what bring the two of you here?" Chapelle asked when he saw the two.

"Oh, we were just passing by when we..." Hisako said turning her head towards the other students.

The professor noticed this and said. "They're being punished for sabotaging a team."

"All of them?" Erina asked in confusion. Usually, only the student who did the sabotaging gets punished.

"One team of students did sabotage another team, but (now talking loud enough for all of the students to hear) seeing that the rest of the class saw but didn't say or do anything to stop it, EVERYONE is being punished for the sabotage. I want it to sink in with you students that what was done was NOT acceptable. I shall alert the other staff about this and one more act like that will earn you an expulsion."

The class gulped and started scrubbing harder with the toothbrushes.

Both Erina and Hisako weren't sure what to say, so they decided to just leave and head on to the mansion.

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Daimido Fumio took another bite of the Mack-burger that Sōma made for his entry challenge. The dorm mother had to admit this was an amazing dish, even if it was made from scraps leftover in the kitchen. Fumio smiled and thought, 'Both were able to make amazing dishes. That Yukihira boy's got quite the creative mind, and that Yukihira girl's got a nice cooking attitude even if she's not a student. Both will do great here.' The dorm mother pulled a folded paper out of her pocket, opened it, and read the content again.

"Daimido Fumio,

I am sending you this letter to give you a heads up on a special needs student that wishes to take up residency in your dormitory. His name is Yukihira Sōma and he is completely blind, so if he passes your test, I would advise you to make some small adjustments to the dorm so he can get around easier, especially in the kitchen. You know, mark the cupboards so he knows what's in them. The main thing I want you to do is to simply treat him like you would any other student.

He's a real diamond in the rough.

Best regards, Nakiri Senzaemon"

Fumio smiled and thought. 'He certainly is a diamond in the rough.' She'll call someone tomorrow to make the adjustments to the dorm so the Yukihira boy would get around easier.

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After a nice, relaxing bath for the Yukihira twins, Mayu took Sōma to his new room, room 303 (Mayu's in room 304, right next door). The blind student quickly felt around the room to learn the locations of the door, window, desk, nightstand, and bed. It was a simple dorm room, which was good enough to Sōma for now. The white cane tapped the side of the bed, the redhead felt the soft blanket of the bed with his free hand, sat on the bed, leaned his cane against the nightstand (after feeling around for it), and finally laid on his new bed.

It was quiet, really quiet.

This was the first time Sōma's ever lived away from home. It felt weird to him, but he'll adapt, just like he did when he lost his sight.

Sōma heard a KLUNK sound from above his bed, and then he heard a voice say "Evening, transfer student! C'mon. We're having a-"

Sōma quickly grabbed his cane and jabbed whoever was in the ceiling.

~}i{~ Chapter 2; End ~}i{~

Gale-Dragon: Sorry for cutting out the scene with the Dorm challenge, but you readers will find out why in the future. Also, let me know how I'm doing :-).