I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere

Friendship Maccha Gâteau Chocolat

As the match between Team Ichigo and Team Lemon was a draw, they had to have a rematch. The rematch was the day after tomorrow and the theme was friendship. Ichigo was apologizing that her fruits jelly didn't beat Lemon's fruits jelly. "It's all right Amano," said Makato "besides this is a good fruits jelly". Ichigo and the sweets princes were having some of Ichigo's fruits jelly. "Yeah, that Lemon girl was just lucky that's all" said Satsuki. "You guys won't believe what Lemon was trying to do in the match" she Ichigo. She told everyone about Lemon trying to trick her into using kiwi fruit. "I know it's okay to use kiwi fruit as long as you boil it first, but Lemon was trying to put me off". "I'm glad you didn't fall for that," said Makato "because only a fool wouldn't know about using kiwi fruit in jellies". Ichigo kicked Makato on the leg to shut him up. That of course make Makato glare at Ichigo, and Ichigo just turned her head in a huff.

Sennosuke was feeling very sorry for himself, especially since he had messed up with the amount of sugar he put into his sweets. "It's my entire fault everyone," said Sennosuke "because I didn't get much sleep last night, I messed up with weighing the amount of sugar for my sweets". "It is not your fault Andou-kun," said Ichigo "everybody makes mistakes and nobody's perfect at everything". "Ichigo-chan's right," said Satsuki "besides we can make a comeback in our rematch". Sennosuke still felt very sorry for himself.

That night Ichigo was looking at the results of the second round, of the cake grand prix, on her laptop. "Looks like Team Koshiro completely thrashed their opponents" said Vanilla. "Yes, and it says that they thrashed their opponents in the first round too," said Ichigo "Team Koshiro shows no mercy that's for sure". Just then Vanilla discovered something on the picture of Team Koshiro; Youko Ayukawa was in the picture, which meant she was a member of Team Koshiro. "If Youko Ayukawa from group B is in Koshiro's group, we better watch out for her," said Ichigo "remember group B still intend to pick on me, and seriously I don't trust Team Koshiro, especially Koshiro as she's a very spoilt brat". "I agree with you on that Ichigo" said Vanilla.

At that moment Ichigo got a phone call from Makato, telling her that it was time to practice making sweets. When Ichigo got to the cooking room, Sennosuke still hadn't turned up for practice yet. Makato was about to call Sennosuke on his mobile, but then Caramel turned up. "Andou-kun is nowhere to be found" she said, tearfully "What!" gasped Makato. Makato found that all of Sennosuke's belongings were gone, so that meant Sennosuke had left the school grounds. The other bad news was the last bus had left already. "Andou-kun must have gone home," said Ichigo "what shall we do?" "Tomorrow is the weekend," said Satsuki "so tonight we shall hand in a notification of absence for Andou, and tomorrow we'll go to his place to bring him back". The others agreed to that plan.

As soon as the weekend came, Ichigo, Makato and Satsuki went to Sennosuke's house to bring Sennosuke back to the academy. On the way they met Ichita. "Hi Ichita, is Andou-kun here?" asked Ichigo. "He's out at the moment," said Ichita "but he came home rather late last night. Did something happen". Satsuki told Ichita about their match against Team Lemon and about Sennosuke's slip up. "Andou was very down because of what happened," said Satsuki "so we think he came back here because of that". Ichita couldn't believe what Satsuki just told him. "Leaving the school just because of one loss?" cried out Ichita "I won't forgive him if he decides to quit". "Where is Andou-kun now?" asked Ichigo. "I don't know," said Ichita "he went out earlier, saying that he needed to think about something". "I think I might know where he is" said Makato.

Makato led Ichita and the others to a stream, which had a bridge. "Why are we here?" asked Ichigo. Makato explained that when he and Sennosuke were younger they would come here whenever they had problems and talked about them there. "We came here too before we took the entrance exams for St Marie Academy" said Makato. Sure enough Sennosuke was there; as it was raining Sennosuke was sitting under the bridge. Ichigo was about to call, out to him, but Makato said that he would talk to Sennosuke. He tossed some stones into the stream to get Sennosuke's attention. "Why did you run away?" Makato asked Sennosuke. "I'm a weak person," answered Sennosuke "I get scared of hearing the established name Kujou, and that's why I didn't sleep much the night before the second round". "And that's the reason why you outweighed the amount of sugar?" asked Makato, who was still throwing stones into the stream. "I'm different from you two out of us three," Sennosuke said to Makato "you are the top of all of us in studies and Hanabusa maintains his position in top 5, but I only gain top 10. Out of us there as the sweets princes, I'm the one with least talent than you two. That's why I". Before Sennosuke could continue talking, Makato grabbed onto him. "Don't joke with me!" he shouted. He was angry with how Sennosuke was thinking right now. "Stop that!" shouted Caramel. "Fighting won't help" said Chocolat. "I hate violence" said Café. Makato dropped Sennosuke and walked away. Ichita walked away too because he didn't like seeing his brother miserable.

When Makato and Ichita left, Ichigo sat down next to Sennosuke. "Andou-kun, do you remember when I felt out of place because I was placed with your group because of Henri-sensei?" she asked "I kept on saying that I didn't understand why he placed in the top group because I'm nowhere near as skilled as you and Hanabusa and Kashino. But you've told me now and again that I work hard enough to keep myself in your group, and that I have more heart for my sweets than you three. It is not just you that's different Andou-kun, all of us are different". "I agree with Ichigo" said Caramel.

Satsuki figured that it wasn't terms of talent that Sennosuke lost; it was sight of him-self because of the Kujou brand that Sennosuke lost. Café reminded Sennosuke of the time when Satsuki felt like giving up on his rose pound cake. "Your words of encouragement changed Satsuki's mind" said Café. "You're the peacekeeper of the group," said Vanilla "especially when Kashino and Hanabusa are having their arguments with each other, and when Ichigo gets cross with Kashino because of his rude attitude". "That's right," said Ichigo "our team wouldn't be the same without you around". "Team Ichigo is like a japanese hand fan," said Satsuki "Andou is the pin that holds the fan together, Kashino is the wooden frame, I'm the design of the fan and Ichigo is the glue". Ichigo couldn't see why she was the glue. Sennosuke could see that his friends were here to cheer him up from his depression and thanked them.

Once they all got back to Sennosuke's place, Ichita presented a plate, with two daifuku cakes on, to Sennosuke. Daifuku cakes were rice cakes with sweet red bean paste in the middle. The first one was made my Ichita and Sennosuke thought it was very delicious. "You have improved Ichita" said Sennosuke. Sennosuke tried the other one, but he found it terrible. Ichigo and Satsuki tried it too and they also found it disgusting. "You guys don't need to criticize it that much" said Makato; he made the other cake. Makato proved that there were things that even he wasn't good at. Sennosuke was happy to have friends like Ichigo, Makato, Satsuki and the sweets spirits around. "Thank you everyone," he said "I won't say that I will quit St Marie Academy again". Everyone was pleased to hear that, especially Makato.

That evening Team Ichigo went back to St Marie Academy. Lemon was waiting for them. "I heard you guys sent in notices of absence," she said, in a rude tone, "I thought you guys decided to give up and run away". "I'm afraid you thought wrong Lemon," said Ichigo, calmly, "we left to help our friendship bond. That way it can help with our friendship sweets". Lemon was surprised with how calm Ichigo was acting. "I don't know if I told you this, but I'm Henri-sensei's best student at the St Marie Academy in Paris," boasted Lemon "and I came here because he advised me to. That way I can make more wonderful sweets by learning about japanese sweets". Ichigo and the boys didn't believe if Lemon was telling the truth. "Henri-sensei isn't the one making the friendship sweets, it's you and I" said Sennosuke "my friends and I will make friendship sweets that won't lose to anyone". "Come on guys," said Ichigo "I say let's get back to our special training". "Yes let's" said Makato. He asked Lemon if her and her teammates had any friendship between them; he didn't believe that Lemon was friends with her teammates at all.

Next day it was time for the rematch between Team Ichigo and Team Lemon. This time it was the usual teammates working together. Team Lemon was working with lemons and chocolate. Lemon was making sure her teammates weren't slacking off; not only was she eager to beat Team Lemon, but it was clear that Lemon was not really friends with Kujou, Morino and Ayashi. Team Ichigo was working with green tea, red bean paste, strawberries, glucose syrup and white chocolate. Ichigo made strawberry jam and worked on the red bean paste, Sennosuke worked on the green tea, Satsuki was working on making hard candy with the glucose syrup and Makato was working with the white chocolate.

Soon both Team Lemon and Team Ichigo finished making their sweets. Team Lemon's sweets were presented first. Team Lemon made two sweet rolls; one chocolate flavoured and one lemon flavoured. "If you eat both of them alternately, you will be able to taste the depth of our team's friendship" said Lemon. When the judges did eat them, they thought that the chocolate and lemon flavours matched perfectly. Next it was Team Ichigo's turn. Team Ichigo had made a Japanese style maccha gâteau chocolat cake, in the shape of a Japanese fan with four warbler birds sitting in a tree made by hard candy. Makato explained that the bird sitting on a branch alone was Sennosuke, when he felt down the other day, and that the top three birds were Ichigo, Satsuki and him comforting Sennosuke. When they tried it they thought it tasted a bit too sweet at first because of the white chocolate, but then the chairman pointed out the flavour deepened after every bite. "The strawberry jam and the candies create a sweetness which matches with the not-so-sweet white chocolate," said the chairman "together it creates a sense of harmony. I feel this team shows kindness that can't be judged in a normal way like this cake".

As Team Ichigo was getting a lot of praise from the judges, Morino, Ayashi and Kujou felt their hope of winning was hopeless and they thought that Lemon would be the blame of it. It was very clear that the boys weren't friends with Lemon either. The results came in and Team Ichigo was the winner; their cake held more friendship than Team Lemon's chocolate and lemon rolls did. Because of the loss, Morino, Ayashi and Kujou officially declared that Team Lemon was now finished. Lemon became upset and ran out of the room. Ichigo saw Lemon run off and followed to comfort her, being a kind person.

Ichigo found Lemon crying near the stand outside in the garden. "Will you listen to me Lemon?" she asked. Lemon just sat there, very still. "I came to St Marie Academy because Henri-sensei recommended me to. But I am nowhere as skilled as the sweet princes or Tennouji-sempai. But I continue to work and study hard to become a patissiere like my grandma was, and my friends help me whenever I need help". "Even though I tried to make you use kiwi fruit for the fruits jelly to make you lose, you still speak kindly to me?" said Lemon. "Well I don't really understand why you tried to put me off like that," Ichigo admitted "doing stuff like that will only make you a cheater and you would never become a great patissiere like that, and your boasting isn't going to get you anywhere either". Lemon stared at Ichigo. "I lied when I said that Henri-sensei recommended me to come here because I was his favourite student," Lemon admitted "the truth is back at the Paris campus I boasted about getting the highest grades. Then Henri-sensei got cross with me and he said that I'm too pre-occupied with myself. Then he said for me to be a great patissiere I have to learn everything of the basics of being a patissiere, even the smallest things, otherwise I would never grow. Then he told me about you and your progress of becoming a patissiere Amano. That's why I came here; I wanted to know about what he meant and I also wanted to know what you were like as Henri-sensei said that he learnt how you were getting on well". "Do excuse me Lemon, but Henri-sensei is exaggerating," said Ichigo "but he is right about that you should never leave out the smallest details of things. Let me show you what my dad once showed me and my sister Natsume". She pilled some stones into a sort of pyramid. "What do you see between the big stones I've placed here Lemon?" "I see some little stones" said Lemon. "Correct and watch what happens if I remove a small stone" said Ichigo. Once Ichigo removed it, the stone pyramid tumbled down like an avalanche. "That Lemon is why you must never leave out even the smallest details," said Ichigo "if you leave them out then your career of being a patissiere may tumble down too". Lemon understood everything at once. "After meeting you, I realise that Henri-sensei was right about you Ichigo-sempai," said Lemon "so I'm going to return to the St Marie Academy in Paris. I will learn everything from scratch by going over all the basics, even the smallest ones and be honest with myself". Ichigo was happy to hear that. "May you do your best Lemon-chan" she said.

Lemon said thank you to Ichigo and left to get ready to return to Paris. "I think Lemon-chan understands now" she said to Vanilla. "I agree" said Vanilla. Just then Vanilla saw something; a sweets spirits was flying around Lemon. "It seems that Lemon-chan will become a great patissiere now that she has a partner to help her understand more" said Ichigo. Vanilla agreed.

I hope you don't mind the changes.