Kyandi: I told you I'd be right back! So, everyone, say hi to my OC, Ariadne Sinclair.
Ariadne: Hello!
Kyandi: Just to let you all know, this chapter is actually a little longer than what I usually put out.
Ariadne: She got carried away.
Kyandi: I just couldn't find a good stopping place.
Ariadne: Because of that, you get a little bit of a longer chapter.
Kyandi: Yep. Well, I have errands to do today, so shall we get on with it?
Ariadne: Oui!
Kyandi: Alright. Everyone, please enjoy and review.
Ariadne: Kyandi-sama does not own Shokugeki no Soma.
Chapter 2 Food Wars
The boy, it turned out, was another student living in the dorm by the name of Isshiki Satoshi. He was the only upperclassman currently living in the dorm and had come to collect Ariadne for a joint welcoming party for her and Souma. Ariadne, embarrassed by her actions, even though he kind of deserved it, apologized in all three languages she knew as he lead her and Souma downstairs to room 205 for the party.
There, Ariadne found one of the craziest scenes she had ever seen.
"I told you! I'm busy studying for the written exams! If you're having a party feel free to do it in another room!" This came from the owner of the room, Marui Zenji, who was not happy to be playing host. "Why do you always do it in my room?!"
"It can't be helped. Marui's room is the biggest of all."
This came from one of the other girls living in the dorm, Yoshino Yuuki. She also happened to be the one that Souma had seen chasing wild game through the dorm when had first arrived. At the moment, she sat on Zenji's bed, messing with her nails.
"And it's always clean when we come." Yuuki added.
"Don't just go and sit on my bed!" Zenji yelled back.
Ariadne currently found herself sitting on the floor just to the right of Megumi, Souma sitting on Megumi's other side. Megumi, to Ariadne's eyes, seemed upset, the girl doing everything in her power not to look at Souma. Ariadne had to wonder if it had something to do with Souma making her taste his honey and squid dish. She couldn't think of it being anything else. Seeing how fidgety and upset Megumi looked, Ariadne thought it best not to ask. She didn't want to trouble the other girl anymore then she had already been.
"Well, I never thought I'd be together with Tadokoro, or Ari, in the dorm too." Souma remarked.
"You're right...Wait, that means that Souma-kun and Ari-chan...You passed the dorm entrance skill test at your first try?!" Megumi shouted, looking between the two.
Souma sheepishly rubbed at the back of his head, giving her a half grin. Ariadne just smiled, letting Souma do all the talking while she took another drink from the cup that had been passed to her.
"Well yeah, I'm glad I somehow managed." Souma told Megumi.
"'Somehow managed', he says." Ariadne mused, laughing lowly to herself.
From the look she had seen on Fumio's face, Ariadne was willing to bet that he had done more than just "managed".
"That's amazing...I don't think there's many people who passed on their first try." Megumi said, before turning to Ariadne. "You passed on your first try, too?"
Ariadne's eyes rolled to the side, refusing to look at the dejected look in Megumi's big, pleading eyes. Instead of answering, and making the current situation more awkward by admitting that she, too, had managed something in a single try that took Megumi three months to accomplish, Ariadne remained silent. But that was answer enough for Megumi, the girl hanging her head in despair.
"Hey, Ari, what did you do to that guy earlier that had you apologizing to him over and over?" Souma suddenly asked, leaning around Megumi to look at Ariadne.
"Oh, um...I threw my shoe in his face when he popped up out of my ceiling."
When Megumi turned a look on Ariadne that was a mix of shock and horror, Ariadne smiled sheepishly, Souma laughing in the background. It wasn't like Ariadne had been purposely trying to get off on a wrong foot with the dorm's supervising student. If she had wanted to do that, she could have come up with way better ways of doing that. It was just kind of hard not to react the way she had when the boy had chosen the weirdest way possible to collect her for a party.
Speaking of the creepy ceiling creeper.
"Hey, hey! I called out for everyone in the dorm, you know? But there's not even half of them here." Isshiki said, entering the room.
"Well, it can't be helped, right." one of the other boys, a guy named Sato Shoji, replied. "Isshiki-senpai tells us to gather almost everyday so everyone's got tired of it."
"They got tired, that can't be, right? I mean, Tadokoro-chan always participates." Isshiki replied.
"But, if I don't participate he'll come to wake me up a few minutes later." Megumi replied.
"He'd eventually give up if you ignore him...Megumi, you sure are conscientious."
This comment came from the last of the girls in the dorm, Sakaki Ryoko.
"Listen, everyone! Youngsters living under the same roof and eating food from the same stove. This is youth! This is being a student! I yearned for that so I came to this dorm. Now, let's enjoy a bright dorm life!" Isshiki exclaimed.
Ariadne had to worry that perhaps Isshiki had read one too many slice-of-life mangas and that it had all just gone to his head.
"That's fine and all, but just stop coming to call us using the loft." Shoji told Isshiki.
"Yes, please. Next time, I won't feel sorry for throwing a shoe at you." Ariadne added, giving Isshiki a bright smile when he turned a gloomy look on her. "A girl needs her privacy, yes?"
Isshiki left it at that. If he didn't want to take her warning though, then Ariadne would just have to get some heavy-duty glue after the ceiling tiles in her room. Make sure he couldn't get to her room through that way.
"So, I'm a second year, Isshiki. Call me "Isshiki-senpai"!" Isshiki said, offering his hand to Souma and Ariadne to shake. "Everyone else are first years like you two. Welcome to the Polar Star Dorm."
"Sinclair Ariadne. I really do insist that you all call me either Ariadne or Ari." Ariadne said, as she shook Isshiki's hand. "And, once again, sorry about the shoe to the face, but you really shouldn't pop in on a girl from her ceiling like that."
Isshiki merely gave her a smile and a laugh. Ariadne had a feeling that he wasn't taking her statement serious. First thing tomorrow, Ariadne was heading to the store for the strongest glue she could find and was sealing up her ceiling tiles.
"Now, let's have a toast. All of you, grab a drink!" Isshiki declared.
Ryoko handed Souma and Ariadne a cup once they were seated and poured them a drink from a bottle with a handmade label.
"Thank you." Ariadne told her with a smile.
"I mean, is it okay to make this much noise this late?" Souma asked, looking around.
"It's okay, I mean, this place is surrounded by a forest." Ryoko assured him.
"But well, there's the dorm mother..."
Souma was cut off when Fumio's voice suddenly sounded from the pipes that stuck up out of the floor. Ariadne guessed she finally got her answer on what they were for. It seemed they were used to converse between the rooms. Which was pretty cool, but Ariadne could already see some problems with that kind of thing.
"I think it's okay, Souma." Ariadne remarked, smiling as Fumio called for someone to come get some food she had prepared for them.
"Come back before Fumio-san starts bragging about the Elite Ten!" Isshiki called after the two going after the food.
Isshiki's comment caught Souma's attention, making him look up from his drink.
"Hey, you know what that "Elite Ten" is?" he asked.
"Eh...you're seriously asking?" Ryoko replied, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"You really entered Totsuki without knowing anything, huh." Yuuki added from the bed.
"Even I know who they are." Ariadne remarked, drawing Souma's attention to her. "It's a committee made up of the top ten students in the Internal Evaluations. In the school, most of the decisions are left for the students to decide, and the members of the Elite Ten are the ones that decide what to do. In the set-up of organization within the school, the Elite Ten are directly below the school director. Even teachers have to listen to their choices. Needless to say, what they say, goes."
"That's pretty much it." Yuuki agreed. "Decades ago, when the dorm's rooms had no vacancies, a lot of the Elite Ten came from the Polar Star."
"It seems there was even a year when the Elite Ten was made entirely up of Polar Star students. When Fumio-san starts talking about that it'll take a while!" Ryoko added.
Ariadne filed that piece of information away, mentally making a note to never bring up the Elite Ten around Fumio. The last thing she needed was to be held up for hours on end, listening to Fumio's bragging and stories. Thinking that, Ariadne took a drink from her cup and let out a little surprised noise, peering down at the liquid inside the cup.
"This murkiness...Ryoko, this wouldn't happen to be illicitly brewed sake, would it?" Ariadne asked, Souma glaring at his own cup.
"It's just juice made from rice." Ryoko replied.
Sure it was.
As the party really picked up, Ariadne was amazed at just how weird the inhabitants of the dorm were. At the top of the List of Weirdness, was Isshiki suddenly managing to lose all of his clothes except for his apron. Not knowing what to do, but having enough experience to do anything else, Ariadne dropped her face into her hand, hiding Isshiki from her sight. It made her wonder if she would ever get use to people she now found herself living with.
As things jump first from a fight between Shoji and Daigo over whose food was better, then Yuuki joined in on that fight, and then Souma introduced their new dorm mates to his horrible squid concoctions. Before Ariadne knew it, everyone save her Souma and Isshiki, were passed out. Even thought both Isshiki and Souma insisted on her staying up with them a little longer, Ariadne turned them down, insisting that she needed to get to bed.
It had nothing to do with the fact that Isshiki was still walking around in nothing but an apron.
Waving goodnight to the two, Ariadne glanced at her watch. She did a quick calculation before a smile curled her lips. It would be mid afternoon back home and her sister, Taliyah, would be out of school. Ariadne could give her a call before she headed off to bed. With that thought, Ariadne hurried up to her room, grabbing her phone from her desk and flopping onto her bed. Rolling onto her back she dialed her home number and listened to the phone ring.
On the second ring, a man answered the phone, his smooth, heavily accented French sounding over the line.
"Dante, it's Ari." Ariadne greeted, recognizing the voice of an old family friend.
Dante Ricci was someone Ariadne had grown up with, the man basically being an adopted brother to her. When she had been her younger sister's age, Ariadne's parents had taken Dante in, raising him as their own. It was nice, in a place where hardly anything was familiar, to hear a voice she had grown up with.
"Ah! Ari! We were wondering when you were going to call."
"Sorry about that. It has been a very...interesting day." Ariadne replied, grinning to herself as she did. "Is Taliyah there?"
"Of course. She's been practically glued to the phone since coming home from school. I am surprised that I actually got to the phone before she di-"
The man on the other end, Dante, was cut off. Ariadne raised an eyebrow as she hurried scrambling on the other end, followed by yells of "Gimme, gimme!". There was a crash and then a small, panting voice came on the phone.
"Ari?! Is that you?!"
Ariadne chuckled quietly to herself at the almost frantic tone in her little sister's voice as she spoke. Of course the little girl would be worked up despite the fact that they had only been separated for two days.
"What would you have done, Tali, if it wasn't me on the phone but some business call?" Ariadne asked, lightly scolding her sister.
"Oh, umm...I didn't think about that."
Of course she hadn't. Ariadne and Taliyah were closer than most sisters, the two of them always together. For as long as Taliyah could remember, Ariadne had always been no further than a yell away. Always there, always ready to open her arms for the little girl. Ariadne couldn't blame her for being a little anxious at them being apart.
"It's alright, this time, but, for now on, you need to be patient and make sure its me before you get worked up, alright, sweetie?" Ariadne asked.
"Alright. It's just...I miss you, Ari."
"I miss you too, sweetie, but it's only for a little while. Now, you need to apologize to Dante for knocking him over. He's not so young anymore that you can get away with that." Ariadne told her sister.
"Hey! I heard that!" came Dante's voice in the background. "I am only twenty-two, thank you very much!"
"I meant no offense by it Dante. Only that it is natural as people get older, to take a little longer to recover from injuries." Ariadne assured him.
"Yeah! Your bones are weaker than ours, Dante!" Taliyah said sweetly, with no real malice behind her words.
Ariadne clamped a hand over her mouth as Dante started bickering with the eight year old, insisting that his bones were still strong and sturdy. Listening to the two of them go at it, as if they two were the same age rather than years apart, it made Ariadne instantly homesick.
"God, I already miss the two of you." Ariadne found herself saying.
All noise on the other end of the phone came to a complete stand-still. There was silence for a moment before one of the two talked.
"You can always come home if you want, Ari. We can figure things out another way." Dante told her.
"No, no. This will be good for me, in more ways than one. You guys just have to answer the phone everyday when I call. And I do mean every day. Oh! And send me pastries, too. If I have that, I can handle the homesickness." Ariadne told him.
She heard Dante chuckle.
"You got it, Ari. Just leave it to your big brother." Dante insisted.
"Ari doesn't want your pastries! Your's always turns out tasting funny!" Taliyah insisted.
Another round of arguing started then, Ariadne unable to stop her laughter. After the long trip to Japan, first day of class, and then the whole test to enter the dorms, it was nice to be able to call and just hear her siblings' voices.
Even if it was just listening to them argue.
"How about we agree that both of you are going to send pastries so I say goodnight and get to bed. I do have classes tomorrow and it's already late here." Ariadne told them.
Taliyah and Dante agreed, the two wishing her good night and good luck for the following day before Ariadne hung up. Grinning to herself as she got ready for bed, Ariadne couldn't wait to see what her life at Totsuki would turn out to be like.
With dorm mates like hers, Ariadne was sure that life was going to turn out very interesting.
-0-0-0-0-
"You told me it was postponed yesterday. So now, with the seventh seat on line, I challenge you! Isshiki-senpai!"
This was not what Ariadne was expecting first thing in the morning.
Upon coming down to the dinning room the next morning, some of her fellow dorm mates behind her, Ariadne found Souma sitting cross-legged in a chair. The moment they entered the room, he had dramatically declared a challenge, as if he had been waiting there for the moment Isshiki came down. Silence stretched between them, everyone just staring at the particularly smug look on Souma's face.
Then Isshiki heaved a gentle sigh.
"Sorry, Souma-kun...I didn't explain enough about Totsuki Academy's "challenges"." Isshiki started, Souma giving him a confused look. "To start with, these "challenges" were established to settle disputes between students. There are some rules to them. Souma-kun, if you wish to challenge me to get my seventh seat, you must present "compensation" that matches it."
Ariadne moved past Isshiki, heading to the table where Fumio had already set out their breakfast. The others joined them, Ariadne thanking Fumio for the food before digging in, Isshiki continuing his explanation.
"Let's see, if it was a condition of equal value to the seventh seat, not even dropping out of school would be enough." Isshiki told Souma.
"Really?!"
Souma couldn't believe his ears. Ariadne, though, had to agree that it was fitting. After all, only the director of the school sat above the Elite Ten in terms of power and say in the school. In order to win one of those seats, there had to be a lot riding on the line for the other person too.
"That's right! That's the worth of the Elite Ten. In the past, some of the students of this dorm made it into the Elite Ten nearly every year. It was truly the Golden Age of the Polar Star. You guys are miserable compared to that!" Fumio snapped.
"One of us is in it so bear with it, Fumio-san." Daigo replied.
"Besides, don't you think that's a little harsh when two of us only just arrived?" Ariadne asked.
Seeing her point in this, Fumio fell silent once more, Isshiki continuing on with the original topic at hand. Holding his hands palm-up in a look of what-can-you-do, Isshiki gave a shake of his head.
"If I accepted your conditions we could compete, but of course, I don't want you to leave this academy. To sum it up, your challenge isn't feasible." Isshiki told him, giving Souma an apologetic smile for the bad news.
"Really? And I woke up at five all fired up." Souma whined, crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat.
"All that for a reckless challenge? Are you trying to get yourself ejected from this school before you even really start?" Ariadne asked Souma.
"I think he's probably an idiot." Yuuki butted in.
"I wouldn't call him an idiot, so much as...single-minded." Ariadne replied.
Souma knew Ariadne was just trying to help, but all she was doing was making it sound bad in a different way than Yuuki. It wasn't really helping his case in the least. Not that he could say anything to Ariadne's face when she gave him a bright smile.
"And you see," Isshiki said, drawing the conversation back to him. "It's not like we can just do it. For a challenge you need three things. An authorized person that can prove that the challenge is official, an odd number of judges, and that both parties agree on the challenge's conditions. By fulfilling that, the challenge is arranged. Those that oppose each other must make the other surrender with their cooking. Totsuki's traditional one-on-one cooking challenge! It's name is Food Wars."
"Sounds interesting. Hmmm~!"
Isshiki and the others turned their attention to Ariadne as she hummed to herself. As they watched, Ariadne's lips curled, not into one of the smiles they had seen thus far, but into something with a mischievous quirk to it. They couldn't tell what Ariadne was thinking, but if that smirk of hers was anything to go by, then it wasn't good.
"If you'll excuse me." Ariadne said, getting to her feet to take her dishes to the kitchen, a thoughtful look in her eyes and the grin only growing wider.
"Why do I get the feeling something bad is about to happen when she smiles like that?" Yuuki asked.
No one had an answer for her. Maybe after getting to know Ariadne better, they might, but for the time being, Ariadne was a mystery.
With the conversation brought to an end, Souma finished up his breakfast, meeting up with Megumi and Ariadne at the dorm's front doors so the three could head to class together.
"Oh, hey, did you ever get to call your sister last night?" Souma asked, looking over at Ariadne.
"Yeah. She had been waiting by the phone for me to call. Nearly killed our brother in her hurry to take the phone from him." Ariadne replied, grinning at the mental image of little Taliyah tackling grown Dante.
"Sounds like she already misses you." Megumi remarked.
"Yeah, she does. Since the day that she was born, I've carried that girl around like she was my own baby. Where I went, she went, and vice versa. We've never seen separated like this before." Ariadne replied, her own tone filled with longing.
"You miss her, too." Megumi stated.
"Of course I do. She's my baby sister. Aside from cooking, she's been my whole world." Ariadne replied.
"Wouldn't your brother be sad to hear that?" Souma asked, glancing back at Ariadne.
"Don't get me wrong, I love Dante too. We might not be blood related, but he's been like a brother to me for a long time."
"You're not blood related?" Megumi asked.
"No. Dante was fourteen when he came to live with us. His parents had been really close friends with mine. When they were killed in a car accident, there was no other family members to step up and take Dante in. My parents were quick to step in. They brought him into our home and that was all she wrote. As far as Taliyah and I are concerned, he's our brother. Though, when he starts trying to flirt, I claim I don't know him. It's just too awkward to watch."
Souma and Megumi laughed as Ariadne made a face. As far as Ariadne was concerned, the lack of flirting skills, alone, showed that Dante was not related to them. Everyone in Ariadne's family, even little Taliyah, had some kind of flirting skills, but Dante...Ariadne could only heave a sigh and hang her head at his failed attempts.
Needless to say, Dante was single.
Ariadne, Souma and Megumi continued to chat as they made their way to the main school building. Classes, that day, were interesting, Ariadne learning more about her fellow classmates. She met up with Souma and Megumi after school, Megumi offering to show them around the school a bit. Along the way, they stopped at a large announcement board on which were displayed various flyers. Souma stopped, peering at them, Ariadne at his side.
"Research Society?" Souma asked, reading the flyers.
"Yes, there's a lot of societies in Totsuki that specialize in different types of cooking." Megumi told him. "After school, they develop new dishes or participate in cooking contests outside the school together."
"Oh, so kind of like after school clubs in a normal high school." Ariadne remarked.
"Exactly! I'm part of the Local Cuisine Research Society." Megumi added.
"What? There's even one of Chanko Nabe?" Souma asked.
"Ah! The Chan RS has a long history." Megumi replied.
"There are so many choices." Ariadne mused, her eyes scanning the board.
There was a society for just about every kind of cuisine she could think of. It almost made Ariadne's head spin, there were so many choices. Though, she noted, her eyes scanning quickly over the words before her, that there wasn't a society for her kind of cooking. Which was interesting to say the least. It made her wonder if she was truly a strange existence within the school.
Apparently, though, one of the flyers caught Souma's attention.
"Let's go, Tadokoro, Ari!" Souma suddenly exclaimed, pushing the two girls ahead of him.
Ariadne was left with no choice but to follow, Megumi stumbling over her words as she tried to protest, but was left unable to get it out. The society that Souma whisked them off to, was for Bowl Club, a group devoted to researching different recipes for rice bowls.
Ariadne used the word "group" very loosely, though.
When they opened the door, they were greeted with the sight of a small room covered in a scattered array of recipes and notebooks, and a rather depressed looking upperclassman sitting in the middle of the room, his head hung.
"I'm sorry, but go back. Soon, the Don RS will be shut down." he told them when he glanced up to see who had opened the door.
The boy, in the most depressed manner Ariadne had ever heard, introduced himself as Konishi Kanichi, a second year and the leader of the club.
"You said you were Yukihira, Tadokoro...and Sinclair, huh. I'm this place's chief." Kanichi told them.
"Are you alright? You seem a little...depressed, defeated." Ariadne remarked.
"Hehehe...laugh at me, I couldn't even protect the Don RS." Kanichi replied as Megumi bent to pick up one of the notebooks lying on the floor.
"This is...a recipe compilation?" Megumi asked, looking at it. "It seems these are dishes the Don RS thought about."
"Let's see." Souma said, holding out a hand for the notebook.
Megumi handed the notebook to Souma, Ariadne moving closer to peer over his shoulder. Ariadne's eyes scanned the pages as Souma flipped through them. There were all kinds of rice bowl recipes inside, from the mainstream, common ones, to one far more eccentric. There were even recipes she had never heard off.
"There's some really interesting ones here!" Ariadne remarked, Souma agreeing with her.
"Why does the Don RS have to be shut down?" Souma demanded.
The two's comments seemed to spark some life into Kanichi, the boy happy to find someone who understood the wonder of rice bowls.
"You understand...you understand, Yukihira! Sinclair!"
Ariadne ducked to the side, avoiding Kanichi as he threw himself at her and Souma. Instead of latching on to the both of them, Kanichi merely grabbed Souma by the shoulders, tears streaming down his face from happiness.
"Don are a men's meal for fighting men! "Fast, tasty, and cheap". The beauty of the casual style! Manliness completed in one bowl! As a single man, I can't die without mastering dons!" Kanichi yelled.
Ariadne stood back with Souma and Megumi, tilting her head to the side as she watched Kanichi get himself all fired up. She supposed it was an improvement over how he was when they had first arrived, but both states were two extremes, and she could do without both.
"Damn...my Don RS...if only Nakiri Erina wasn't here!" Kanichi growled.
"Nakiri?" Souma asked, recognizing Erina's name.
"This is how Nakiri Erina does things. She cuts the budget or proposes the reduction of the clubroom of associations she doesn't like. After forcibly getting the approval to do that, the other party's situation gradually worsens until their only option left is turning the tables in one go with a Food War. Nakiri puts even more absurd conditions to accept the Food War and makes everything go the way she wants. Like that, she continues to gain more influence." Kanichi explained to them.
Sounds like an unpleasant person to be around, Ariadne thought.
Ariadne wasn't usually one to make judgments of people when she hadn't really had the time or chance to talk to them herself, but from what all she had heard about Erina from others, the girl didn't sound like the most pleasant of people to know. It made her wonder just how much of the rumors were actually true and how much of it was just blown out of proportion.
"The Don RS members, as soon as they found out that the opponent this time is one of Nakiri's subordinates, they all ran away." Kanichi told them.
And just like that, Kanichi lost all of the fire he had just sparked in himself. Ariadne couldn't believe how quickly this guy could swing from one extreme to the other. If it had been her, she would have gotten whiplash. Souma, though, didn't even seem to register the mood swings.
"So...what kind of opponent are you facing?" Souma asked.
Before Kanichi could answer the question, the door to the room flew open and men came pouring in, not caring when they trampled on the recipe notebooks on the floor. With them, came another student who had chosen to wear her uniform button down shirt unbuttoned and tied over what Ariadne was sure was just her bra. That or a bikini top.
"As we thought, rather than remodeling it, destroying it completely and rebuilding it is faster." one of the men told the girl.
"Is that so? Then do that!" she told them.
"Wha...what are you trying to do?" Kanichi demanded.
"'What?', well...I came to get an early preview. Because the result is obvious already." the girl, Mido Ikumi, replied.
Ariadne had to fight back a laugh at the embarrassed look on Kanichi's face as Mido invaded his personal space, backing him up against a wall and pinning him there with a fist on the wall.
"If you're confident in beating me then the story is different, right, Mr. Chief?" Mido demanded.
Kanichi was unable to look her in the eye, too intimidated and embarrassed to give her a confident reply. It only had Mido clicking her tongue at him in annoyance as she stepped away from him, hands on hips.
"What a gutless man. Since you're like that your members ran away." Mido told him.
"Damn nikumi." Kanichi muttered.
"Oh, dear..."
Ariadne let those two words slip when, in a flash, Mido drew a cleaver from a harness on her thigh and used that to chop off half of the ridiculous fedora hairstyle Kanichi had.
"If you say that one more time, I'll kill you." Mido told him.
Ariadne leaned towards Megumi then, lowering her voice to ask the girl a question.
"Hey, Megumi, who is she?" Ariadne asked.
Where Ariadne and Souma were new, and still didn't know the more famous members of the school, Megumi had been apart of the school since middle school. She was bound to know who this Mido girl was.
"Mido Ikumi-san...a chef known by the alias "Meat Master". In the middle school section, she always had superior grades. Specially in meat dishes' classes, her mastery has only earned her A's. The depth of her knowledge of meat is top class in the academy!" Megumi told her.
"I see. Then that would explain why she works under this Nakiri Erina girl. From what I've heard of Nakiri Erina, she only accepts the best." Ariadne remarked.
Megumi nodded in agreement as Ariadne turned her attention back to Mido.
"Hey! You're hindering my preview so could you leave? You can come back in about an hour." Mido told Kanichi.
"Wha!? Th...the match isn't settled yet." Kanichi tired to protest.
"I told you it's obvious, didn't I?" Mido replied, sounding annoyed. "Erina-sama said so too, that no matter how much you fixate on "Don", it's nothing more than a B-class gourmet vulgar dish. That isn't needed in Totsuki."
The more I hear about this Erina girl, the more I can only picture a spoiled, rich girl princess type. I'm not sure we'll get along.
Ariadne gave her head a shake as she thought this. Regardless of what Erina's reputation and sway at the school was, if she acted completely like a spoiled brat, Ariadne wouldn't be able to stand her.
"Every other ingredient prostrates itself before worthy meat. No matter what kind of dish you make, it won't beat my super high grade meat!" Mido was going on, Ariadne finally tuning back in around the end of her spiel.
"I think rejoicing only over ingredient cost is a disgrace for a chef." Souma commented suddenly.
Mido turned a surprised look on Souma as the boy moved past her and to Kanichi's side.
"I have to agree, honestly. If all chefs only focus on the most expensive ingredients, then, eventually, they will go broke. Then what? Seems a little redundant, no?" Ariadne agreed, shrugging her shoulders, and giving Mido a wink, when the other girl glanced at her too.
"Good point." Souma agreed with Ariadne before turning to Kanichi, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Senpai, that Food War, can you leave it to me?"
Both Mido and Kanichi gave Souma identical shocked looks, Mido's quickly morphing to one of disbelief, as if she thought Souma was crazy. Which she probably did.
"What's with you? Outsiders should stay out of this..." Mido trailed off, Ariadne hiding a smile behind a hand as the other girl finally realized where she had seen Souma before. "You're...one of the transfer students!? The one from the opening ceremony."
"My, my...I don't think you're ever going to live that down, Souma." Ariadne mocked, Souma merely shrugging his shoulders.
"I wanted to try talking with you." Mido added, ignoring Ariadne's comment.
Ariadne had a feeling that, by the end of the Food War, Mido might not be so ready to dive head long into a full blown conversation with Souma. The boy could be rather annoying and had a tendency to rub people the wrong way. Even though he didn't mean to do that some of the time.
"To think you would try to butt in other people's Food War. You must be really confident on your skills." Mido remarked.
"Once you get to know him, you'll see that that is just Souma. I don't think he really understands social boundaries." Ariadne joked, giving Mido a smile when the girl looked at her. "It can be endearing at times...when you aren't on the receiving end, that is."
Souma didn't take anything Ariadne said in offense. He knew what he was like and knew that Ariadne was just joking. Or, at least, he thought she was joking.
"If you want we can battle in your arena...with meat dishes, I'll win either way." Souma told Mido.
"Then, if you lose to me, will you quit Totsuki?" Mido demanded. "If you don't have any guts don't go saying big wor-"
"Yeah, that's fine with me!"
Ariadne couldn't fight back the curt laugh that bubbled forth from her lips when Mido went slack-jawed, staring at Souma. Megumi and Kanichi just stood back, watching silent, unable to say a word.
"I saw that one coming." Ariadne remarked, Souma grinning back at her.
"In exchange, if I win...let's see...you have to join the Don RS." Souma told Mido, shocking everyone.
Ariadne had to admit that it was a fitting punishment. Mido had, after all, been seeking to bring Don RS down, so what better punishment than to make her join the club she had been trying to dismantle? It was perfect in Ariadne's opinion.
"Join the Don RS and contribute to develop the Don's culture, as an apology for the troubles you caused." Souma added.
"You really plan to win against me..." Mido trailed off, smirking to herself before she turned to the men how had entered the room with her. "Contractors, we're withdrawing today. Then, I accept the right to choose the theme! The main ingredient is "meat"...the dish to make is a "Don"! The match will be just as planned...in three days!"
With that, Mido and her contractors left the room, Mido waving a hand over her shoulder. The door slide shut behind Mido, leaving Ariadne and her friends in silence.
Silence that Ariadne was quick to break.
"She's cute. Prissy, but cute."
Souma, Kanichi, and Megumi all turned looks on Ariadne, the girl raising an eyebrow at them, silently asking why they were staring at her. Not wanting to get into the conversation at that point, Kanichi turned to Souma.
"Yukihira...why are you helping?" he asked.
"As the son of a special of the day shop, I can't overlook when someone says expensive meat is everything, and most of all, I thought that it would be a shame to let this place shut down." Souma replied, bending to pick up and dust off one of the notebooks that had been stepped on.
"But, Souma-kun, do you have any chances of winning?" Megumi asked.
Of course, Souma hadn't really thought about that. Ariadne gave her head a shake. While she was interested in seeing how this played out, she had to agree that it would have been nice if Souma had thought it through a little more before challenging someone who had been at the school a lot longer than him and knew how Food Wars played out.
Some would see this as things being stacked against Souma, but Ariadne had a feeling that Souma was so confident because he knew what he was doing. And if he didn't, then that just meant that he didn't need to be at Totsuki in the first place.
But Ariadne had a feeling she didn't need to worry.
END
Ariadne: You make me out to be a bigger flirt than I am.
Kyandi: Honey...you're a huge flirt. It runs in your blood.
Ariadne: Is that even something that can be inherited?
Kyandi: For the sake of our story...yes.
Ariadne: Well, if you say so.
Kyandi: Alright, well, I have to get going, so we'll leave it at that for this week.
Ariadne: Bonus points to whoever can make an accurate guess as to why Kyandi-sama named the story what she did.
Kyandi: Best of luck and enjoy and review. Please review!
Ariadne: We will return as soon as possible.
Kyandi: Bye-bye!