I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere
Goodbye Koshiro
It was now time for the chocolate cake challenge to start. Makato still couldn't believe that Miya had been tutored of chocolate tempering by Monsieur Leon, but he was still confident that his chocolate skills would beat Miya's skill. As soon as the challenge started, Miya showed Team Ichigo her design for the cake. It, of course, was really Ichigo's design that Youko Ayukawa took a photo of the other day. Team Ichigo stared at it. "Very nice design" Ichigo said, calmly. It was clear to her and the others that Team Koshiro did decide to cheat to win. Miya was surprised by Team Ichigo's reaction. 'Hang on, why aren't they surprised?' she thought 'this was Amano's design'. Youko saw Team Ichigo's reaction too and was surprised that Team Ichigo didn't say anything about it being Ichigo's design. 'Could Amano know what I did?' she thought. Miya didn't ask questions and just told her team to get to work.
Team Ichigo started to work on their cake too. "I wonder if Team Koshiro suspects anything" said Caramel. "I don't know," said Vanilla "but wait till they see what Team Ichigo has come up with". "I can't wait to see the heiress' face when she sees Team Ichigo's new design," said Chocolat "it will serve her right for trying to cheat". This was true; Ichigo had thought of a new design for the challenge. Sennosuke and Satsuki were working with marzipan, hard candy and powder food colouring, and Ichigo and Makato were working on the Sachertorte cake; Ichigo worked on the chocolate base and Makato worked on the chocolate coating.
Team Koshiro were working on their cake too and it looked like they were working as a team, which seemed unusual to the audience because Miya had never worked with actual team work before; she had always taken credit for herself. Youko was working the hardest. 'I will become a patissiere,' she thought 'and I will do whatever it takes to become one'. The truth is Youko was determined to be a top class patissiere. Sad news was that she didn't believe that emotions or having fun when making sweets mattered and she did her sweets making seriously. And another sad thing was is that she would do anything to accomplish her goal, even if it meant doing bad and unfair things like copying someone else's design or sweets. What Youko didn't know was that Ichigo had discovered what she had done the other day.
Team Ichigo were doing very well on their cake and nothing was going wrong. Kashino had just melted the chocolate, at a right temperature, and was about to set to work on tempering it. But he still felt uncomfortable with the fact that Monsieur Leon had taught Miya on how to temper chocolate. Ichigo could see that Makato was feeling uneasy and she held his hand. "Listen Kashino," she said "this is your chance to show Monsieur Leon your skills of making chocolate. I've seen you practice tempering chocolate like there is no tomorrow, a lot of times, and you love making chocolate more than anyone else in this school". "Amano-san is right," said Sennosuke "besides you have been practicing tempering chocolate way more than Koshiro-san has; you've practiced for years and Koshiro-san has only practiced for a few months. No one in this school can beat your skill". "That's right chocolate prince" said Satsuki. Makato stared at the others and knew that he did have friends that would always support him in any way they could. He got to work on the chocolate coating at once. 'Because of my skill on making chocolate, I got conceited because I have always made chocolate alone,' he thought 'but I know that I can accomplish anything because I have friends on my side. I won't give up".
Now it was time for Team Ichigo to decorate their cake. They huddled in front of the cake together so that Team Koshiro wouldn't see what they were doing. Team Koshiro were decorating their cake too and when they were done it was exactly the same way that Ichigo designed it, with pink coloured frosting and different ingredients like cream and things in the shape of hearts. Then Team Ichigo revealed their cake. Their new design was a design of Benzaiten, the Japanese goddess of love. The model of Benzaiten was made out of marzipan by Satsuki and Sennosuke had helped him colour her with powdered food colourings, and she was standing on some marzipan that covered the top of the sachertorte cake. Satsuki also made four big hard candies, in the shape of hearts that were on each side of the cake. One hard candy was pink, another green, another brown and the fourth one red.
Everyone thought that Team Ichigo's design looked great. Team Koshiro was in shock when they saw the design, especially Miya and Youko. 'No way,' thought Miya 'they came up with a new design'. "Pfft the heiress' face is priceless," chuckled Chocolat "I wish I had a camera to take a photo of it". "This will serve her right for trying to cheat" said Café. "It also serves Ayukawa right for stealing Ichigo's design twice" said Vanilla.
Now it was time for judging and Team Koshiro went first. "Our cake represents the different kinds of love there are like friendship love, family love and other kinds of love. "That defiantly proves that Team Koshiro stole and copied your design Amano-san" said Sennosuke. Ichigo showed the boys her original design yesterday before she showed her design based on Benzaiten. "Yes and it thanks to Vanilla that I found out what Ayukawa had done," said Ichigo "thank goodness I had the time to re-create my design". The judges thought that it was indeed a very good cake. Then it was Team Ichigo's turn to be judges. "Using a goddess of love is a clever idea," said the chairman "do the candy hearts have meanings?" "Yes sir they do," said Ichigo "the four hearts represent the love what Andou-kun, Hanabusa-kun, Kashino and I have. The red heart is my love for cakes, the pink heart is Hanabusa-kun's love for roses, the green heart is Andou-kun's love for japanese sweets and the brown heart is Kashino's love for making chocolate". "Oh I see," said the chairman "I take it you came up with the design right Amano?" "Yes sir I did" replied Ichigo.
Just then Monsieur Leon got out of his seat to judge Team Ichigo's cake. He had watched Makato tempering his chocolate, and he decided to judge it for himself. When he tried a piece of the sachertorte cake he held out his hand to Makato. "Très bien" he said, which meant 'very good' in french. This meant that Monsieur Leon had acknowledged Makato's skill of making chocolate. "Merci" said Makato, accepting Monsieur Leon's handshake. Monsieur Leon also held out his hand to Ichigo. "Très bonne conception" he said, which meant 'very good design' in french. Ichigo was surprised that he was praising her for the design and returned the handshake. "Merci" she said. Then Monsieur Leon left.
The final results came in; this time it was with numbers from 1-10 instead with circles and triangles. Team Koshiro got seven for flavour, six for skill, ten for theme and nine for completion, earning 32 points. Team Ichigo got nine for flavour, ten for skill, eight for theme and nine for completion, earning 36 points. Team Ichigo had won.
Miya was devastated that her team had lost. "Wait a minute!" she shouted "Amano had a different design for the challenge". "It's true I did," said Ichigo calmly "but I decided on a different design yesterday and that doesn't change the rules. But how do you know that I had a different design Koshiro?" Miya went pale in the face, not knowing what to say. "So it seems that you did intend to cheat in this challenge Koshiro," said Ameya-sensei "I overheard Team Ichigo, in the cooking room, yesterday saying something about you scheming to cheat and it seems that Team Ichigo was right". Miya was shocked that her scheme was found out and so was Youko. Satou and Shiyotani just stayed silent. Ichigo spoke up. "Because of our bet the other day Koshiro, I had a bad feeling that you wouldn't participate in this challenge fair and square as you're one of those spoilt, selfish brats who intends to get whatever it is you want," she said "and I figured that your teammates would also help in your scheme to cheat. The other night, thanks to a friend of mine, I found out that Ayukawa took a photo of my design while I wasn't looking. So you're planning to cheat in this challenge has failed Koshiro. And your stunt of stealing my design has back fired again Ayukawa". Youko frowned. "Again?" said Ameya-sensei "what do you mean by again Amano?" "Ask the other members of group B," said Kashino "they know what Amano is talking about". Ikue, Chinatsu and Rie were in the audience and they were stared at by everyone else in the seats, especially by group C.
"And that's not the only thing that failed" said Rumi. She got out of her seat and showed a photo on her mobile phone to the teachers. She showed a photo of Youko turning on the hot fans. "Ichigo-chan told me the other night about what Ayukawa had done," said Rumi "therefore I kept a close watch on Ayukawa today and I caught her turning on the hot fans for this room on Team Ichigo's side, which of course meant that this was to make Kashino have trouble with making his chocolate. But I turned if off before I entered the room". Youko frowned at this; this meant that Youko's other plan to help Miya cheat was to make Team Ichigo have trouble with making the chocolate. Everyone was angry with Team Koshiro.
Karashima-sensei spoke next. "Team Koshiro, you will go back to your dorms and we teachers will discuss about your punishment" he said. Miya was devastated by this. "I hope you lose in the cake grand prix Team Ichigo!" she shouted "and you're fired Ayukawa!" Obviously Ayukawa worked for Miya, but not anymore. Team Koshiro left to go back to their dorms. "Ikue Nakajima, Rie Mihara and Chinatsu Sayama, we will be having words with you three too" said Ameya-sensei. So both group B and Team Koshiro were in trouble now.
The chairman turned to Team Ichigo. "You could have told us teachers about Koshiro's plan to cheat yesterday" he said. "Sorry sir," said Ichigo "but we had no evidence to prove that Koshiro was planning to cheat, therefore we couldn't just tattletale without evidence". "It's true that you can't," said the chairman "but we have ways here to find out if someone is cheating or is stealing someone else's design. So make sure you tell us next time". "Yes sir" said Team Ichigo altogether. Karashima-sensei turned to the other students. "Let this be a warning to all of you," he said "stealing someone else's design and sweets will never make you true patissiers".
So Team Ichigo had won this round, and Makato would stay with Team Ichigo and Team Koshiro was in disgrace.
I did warn all of you that there was going to be a lot of changes with chapter 24 and 25 and chapter 26 will be different as well. And I decided to change the title for this chapter and chapter 26 because of these changes. I decided on Ichigo's new design being on Benzaiten because of her being a goddess of love. Don't worry about the cake grand prix in Paris because Miya Koshiro will be participating in that; I'd never leave that out. And as for chapter 31 there will be my own made up characters versing Team Tennouji.