Kyandi: We're back!
Ariadne: She's been hard at work.
Kyandi: Yes, I have. Sorry it took a few days. I'm in the middle of another move.
Ariadne: This is a big one, too.
Kyandi: Yes, it is. For many reasons.
Ariadne: She's also working on several other stories at the same time as this one.
Kyandi: Including a preexisting one.
Ariadne: Let's not forget the silly series of tropes you've been writing.
Kyandi: Okay, those are just for fun.
Ariadne: Isn't all of this for fun?
Kyandi: …Touché. Anyway, everyone enjoy and review.
Ariadne: Kyandi-sama does not own Shokugeki no Souma. Nor does she own the two songs. Those are Up in Flames owned by Icon for Hire and Deadname owned by Flasch.
Chapter 32 Cuteness Verses Sex Appeal
The moment she stepped onto the stage floor, Ariadne's eyes fixed in on Momo and a slow, cat-like smirk curled her lips. She came strutting towards them with a bouncing in her step. She tossed her hair as she approached.
"Bonsoir, senpai!" Ariadne gave a wave of her hand as those in the crowd blew up.
"She's from Devil's Food!?" one yelled.
"She came from that prestige place?!" came another.
Ariadne flashed them all little waves of her fingers. "Honestly, if any of you ever bothered to learn the name of the family that founded and runs Devil's Food, you would have known the moment you heard my name. Your little nickname for me was far more accurate than you thought. Blue Devil? How priceless."
Tsukasa eyed her. "That was why your desserts at the flower viewing tasted so familiar."
Ariadne turned her eyes back to him, twirling a bit of her hair around one finger. "Truthfully, Tsukasa-senpai, I'm quite grateful for your inability to focus on anything other than your own cooking. It would have been a bit problematic if you had actually cared enough to keep poking until you figured it out." She gave him a wide smile.
"You make the desserts at your family's restaurant." Tsukasa remarked, deciding to ignore her slight at him.
"Oh, honey…" Ariadne's smirk verged on cat caught the canary as she twirled one blue tipped, black lock around her finger. "Your naivety is adorable." As he opened his mouth to ask her what she meant, she waved a dismissive hand at him. "Whatever. I don't have the interest in you to continue this chitchat. I already outgrew the novelty of your personality and skills. But Momo-senpai…" Ariadne turned her eyes to the small third year. "I am very interested in judging your skills, senpai."
Momo's expression was idle when she first looked at Ariadne. "Momo is feeling a little more violent than she usually is, but let's have a good match…Ariadnyan." Momo's eyes went sharp then, Ariadne's expression turning mocking and amused.
"You certainly do seem to be in a rather foul mood. So adorable." Ariadne leaned forward to put herself on eye level with Momo. "While that cuteness has worked for you until now, I'm about to teach you a valuable lesson to carry on into womanhood. Be grateful, senpai."
Momo's gaze turned murderous, only further amusing Ariadne. "You seem quite confident."
Ariadne let out a little chuckle, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she stood up straight. "I'm a Sinclair, the heir to Devil's Food…of course I'm confident, but not without warrant. I'll show a bit of why we're so highly respected." With that, Ariadne turned on her heel as Urara announced that the theme ingredient for her bout with Momo would be muscovado sugar. The perfect ingredient for Ariadne. "Dante, music!"
All eyes turned to the edge of the arena floor where Ariadne's brother, Dante, turned to a speaker and hit play. Instant, fast-paced music filled the room, Ariadne's feet falling into step with it as she gathered her ingredients. Soon she had flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, muscovado sugar, butter, vanilla extract, oil, powdered sugar, white chocolate, a green powder, and something she kept firmly hidden in a bag, sitting on the counter before her. It was clear that she was going with some kind of pastry to go up against Momo.
While people fawned over the array of colorful batters Momo whipped up, Ariadne really got into her music, her ponytail bouncing as she danced. While Momo quickly turned out shape draw with a cornet, Ariadne masterfully sent utensils flying through the air, catching them with a flare as she worked through her recipe.
"I don't wanna say what I got on my mind, 'cause nothing tonight wants to come out on time. The truth is I'd rather sit out and unwind, let somebody else tell their story this time. I wonder what happened to give me the right, to step on a platform and pick up a mic. 'Cause all my credentials were lies!"
Ariadne ignored the intensity of Momo as she turned out more and more piped drawings. Watching her move as she mixed flour, baking powder and salt together, quickly switching out bowls to then combine egg yolks, sugar, water, butter and vanilla extract, Tsukasa and Rindou were surprised, once more, by the skill in which she moved, never spilling a drop despite how many time her whisk or spoon went flipping into the air.
"She looks like she's done this hundreds of times before." Tsukasa remarked.
"Because she has." Tsukasa and Rindou turned to find Azami behind them. "She's one of the most masterful in showmanship when it comes to cooking. Whether it's dancing, singing, or juggling, she has trained long and hard to master this form of cooking. The first time I saw her do it, she was eight and pink-haired."
"You knew she was from Devil's Food?" Tsukasa asked.
"Yes."
Tsukasa turned his eyes back to Ariadne, watching as she blended melted white chocolate, the green powder and something red before laying out several small scoops on a pan that she put in a blast freezer to quickly freeze. She then turned her eggs white, quickly, and expertly whipping them into soft peaks. She took that and the other two bowls and began to fold them together.
"I waited too long letting people like you, tell me what they want and what I shouldn't do. So, mark me with words, but you can't tie my hands. There's nothing I'll say to make you understand. I know who I am, I know where I'll end up: in flames and that's fine, 'cause I'm finally fed up. Stick with what I started, don't care how it hurts. The loudest get shot at the worst. You've had your say, now take your seat. I know my place; you don't know me! I'll probably end up in the flames before the end of the night. Watch me burn in the fire, watch me bid you goodbye. Your words fall right of the page, like they fall on deaf ears. You know that it's over, nothing left for you here."
Tsukasa turned back to Azami. "You didn't tell us."
"No," Azami grinned. "I had hoped she would join us and save herself the trouble, especially given her circumstances, but she has always been a rather stubborn child. Her mother and father were the same way."
"Were?" Rindou picked up on the wording quickly.
"They passed away in a car accident that left Ariadne and her sister as orphans."
They all three turned back to watch, finding Ariadne looking their way. With a grin on her face, she turned as the song changed, this one slower and softer. She allowed herself a moment to dance in place, hips swaying with the steady beat of the drum.
"The old me is dead, someone write a fuckin' eulogy. Hands on your neck, your favorite jewelry. Don't need all your insecurities. Before you ruin me, the new me is great, yeah I'm doing all the shit like, hate. Now you're double tapping on my face, like, I know you're always stalking me, watching me, fly on the wall you're haunting me. And then I see you at the show, tell everybody how you love me. You miss the old me, you think it's crazy how much I've changed."
Ariadne skipped a step as a timer went off right as the music's beat changed a bit to grow a little heavier. She fished the chocolate balls out of the blast freezer, bring them over to the bowl of batter she had made. With quick, practiced movements, she dipped the balls in the batter, gave them a good roll and dropped them into some heated oil on the stove.
"You say my deadname out loud! I'm not fucking Emily, Jade, Emma, Rose, Kate, Penelope, Bri. I'm a legend, I'm your Majesty. The girl you knew is dead to me."
Working with both hands, she flew through frying the balls, dropping new ones into the oil with one hand while she fished finished ones out with the other. She never slowed, keeping time with the music like it was her timer. Something Azami confirmed, by telling Tsukasa and Rindou that Ariadne used carefully chosen music to time her cooking. Different songs worked for different dishes.
"The real me is back. Did you have a fucking heart attack? Bad joke – but I would never take you back! Flashback! I know you're always stalking me, watching me, fly on the wall you're haunting me. Remote view, your room. Now she's walking in my shoes, wife and groom! I guess you had to choose. Life. I know you're always wandering, pondering, where in the world I'm conjuring!"
As the song ended, another featuring a male singer starting, Ariadne continued at her pace, dusting the balls with powdered sugar. She then reached for three piping bags she had prepared, quickly drawing little devil horns and angel wings on each of the balls, one bag per ball. She didn't even look up as Momo presented her dish, completely unconcerned with the massive castle of edible goodies that Momo had put together.
"This is a fearsome sweet indeed! Now then, faced with this bastion, how will Sinclair Ariadne respond?" Kirara announced.
All eyes turned to Ariadne as she finished up her dish with a garnish of mint. She approached the judges to present them with the dish. "May I present my Sinfully Sweet Beignets."
"Beignets!?"
Ariadne smiled brightly as people stared at her like she was crazy. Going up against Totsuki's greatest pâtissier and she had decided to go with a dessert made by French Acadians in America. When compared to the castle that Momo had made, Ariadne's dish definitely fell behind in visual impact. Her friends didn't see how Ariadne could possibly compete with Momo with the little pastries she had given to the judges.
Ariadne was unperturbed. "Please try them."
"I assume we can eat these with our hands?" Anne asked.
"With hands or forks, your choice." Ariadne replied.
Each of the judges picked up one of the beignets, giving them a squeeze. The pastries were light and fluffy, though if they squeezed hard enough, a pale yellow filling came forth. Popping them in their mouths, the crowd waited in silence as the judges rolled the taste over their tongues. What hit the three adults surprised them all and had all three melting on the spot as a light sweat broke out on their skin.
"Oh, dear!" Anne exclaimed, a smile on her face. "You went for the opposite effect of the other dish. Where the star of the other dish was a pairing of sweet and salty, you went for sweet, bitter, and spicy!" Ariadne smiled brightly as Anne turned her eyes to her. "Is this…chili peppers I'm tasting?"
"Qui!" Ariadne clapped her hands together. "Instead of normal, plain beignets, I decided to make a filled one that my mother favored. The filling it actually quite simple. Can you tell?"
Anne and her companions thought for a moment, trying to place the flavors their tongues had been graced with. Then it hit them all at once, Anne's eyes flying up to Ariadne's face. "White chocolate and matcha tea!"
Shock spread through the crowd as Ariadne lit up. "Exactly! It's a bit of an unusual pairing, but it works so well, no? The spiciness of the peppers, the bitterness of the tea and the sweetness of the chocolate. Try the others, the different color creams on top are all different flavors. It changes the taste of the beignets and their filling."
Anne, who had picked up one with a pale green cream, turned to the one with a yellow-orange crème. Putting it in her mouth, the taste morphed, becoming sweeter and tangy. The next one she picked up had a reddish-brown crème on top. When she put it in her mouth, the taste changed to one with more spice and kick to it. Both were different from the sweet and bitter of the first one.
"How did you achieve such different flavors with only a topping?" asked one of Anne's companions.
"Quite simple. The crème is a mix of different, complimenting ingredients and this," Ariadne pulled a small, red bottle out of her pocket. "One of the pride and joys of the Sinclair family…Sinclair Sherry. Our sherry is made sweeter than most and it works very well as a binder for many dishes. I like to add a splash now and then to my dishes. In this case, I used it with mint for the green crème, mango for the yellow crème and cinnamon for the brown crème. All three are great pairings with two, if not all three, ingredients in the filling. The muscovado sugar just rounded out the flavor and brought it all together."
Ariadne seemed rather pleased with herself as the judges devoured their beignets, all three sighing even as spice now and then lit up their tongues. Such a simple looking dish and yet she had managed to create such complex flavors that worked together even as they changed. The spice and sweetness, just as opposite as an angel from a devil. The perfect image for someone like Ariadne, who tempted with her sweet smile only to trap them in her devil's trap.
She truly was the Blue Devil of Devil's Food.
Ariadne then turned to Momo, Tsukasa and Rindou, picking up more plates to present them to the three. "Won't you try too, senpai? See how a real Frenchwoman cooks?" The slight quirk of her lips as she stated the second part had Tsukasa agreeing, Rindou already taking her plate. Ariadne then turned to Momo. "A taste for our little Cute Queen?"
Momo glanced down at the little pastries with their cute designs and topping of mint. "I'll submit that it's rather cute, that sweet of yours. But, you know, Momo can only give it ninety-five percent. Why'd you stuff peppers in there and turn it into a Cajun dish? That batter was so fluffy. Putting something like peppers in there just obscures the texture and flavor. You should have made something different. If you did, I'd have given you a full one hundred. I only needed to look at it once to realize it wasn't worthy of full marks. It's the same as Tadokoro's dish."
Momo's eyes whipped up to Ariadne as she chuckled." Sweet, naïve, Momo-senpai. That's not really the case and you know it. Taste it and you will see for yourself what the difference between me and you is, and what unnerved you so much with your last battle."
Momo gave her the iciest glare Ariadne had ever seen, but she wasn't fazed. Finally, Momo sat her stuffed animal down. "She's insisting, Bucchi. What should we do? Huh? "Why don't we just do her a favor and taste it?" You're such a sweetheart, Bucchi!"
Momo took the dish from Ariadne, sitting the plate on Bucchi's face so she could try the desserts. Silently, she took the first one into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed, picking up the next to repeat the process, before eating the last once. With all three done, she remained silent before a shiver traveled up her spine, her face flushing from the sheer delight of her taste buds. Ariadne smirked because she knew she had won.
"Has it hit you yet, senpai? The difference between me and you?" Momo shot her a glare, unwilling to answer. "It's quite simple, you see. Cuteness is all good and well. My eight year old sister can pull it off perfectly." One of Ariadne's hands went to her hip as the other slid across her collarbones, her fingers deafly unbuttoning the first button of her chef's coat to bare the creamy flesh of her collarbones as she swept her hair back. "Plenty of people love cute things, but at the end of the day, it's not enough. The difference between us, senpai, is that your cuteness has nothing on my sex appeal."
Leaving Momo to sulk at her loss, Ariadne turned to where Tsukasa and Rindou were staring at their empty plates. Tsukasa looked up at her. "This taste…it's so much like the sweets I had from Devil's Food. If you were this good, why decline being a part of the Elite Ten?"
"It's quite straight-forward. I mean…the reason is standing behind you." Ariadne gestured to Azami. "See, I have a rather…annoying problem at the moment and it centers around that man and my family restaurant. He's been trying for years to weasel his way into a partnership with my family. After all, what better way to get a foothold in France and spread his ideals worldwide then by starting with the number one ranked restaurant in the country that has clientele from all over the world?"
All eyes turned to Azami, the man not saying anything even as Ariadne continued. "Of course, he wasn't thrilled when the…style and food changed at Devil's Food four years ago."
"It did change four years ago," Tsukasa mused. "But why."
"Easy…my parents died." Ariadne ignored the shocked looks turned her way. "They died and the head chef of the restaurant changed. With the change of head chef, the food changed and so did the overall air and style of Devil's Food as a whole."
Ariadne watched as Tsukasa slowly pieced together the bits of information she had given him. She saw when the realization finally dawned him. His eyes rose to Ariadne's face. "The food of the restaurant changed four years ago and now…it tastes like your cooking. Do you mean…!?"
Ariadne's smirk grew. "That's right, Tsukasa-senpai. I am the heir of Devil's Food. The restaurant, everything, fell to me when they passed. The ownership of the restaurant that Azami-san wants so bad, sits in my hands because, for the last four years…I have been the head chef of Devil's Food."
Shock sent the whole arena into silence, everyone fixed on Ariadne. It suddenly made sense why Azami wanted Ariadne on his side so much. With her came power, resources, and ally that could further his goals past anything he had achieved on his own. Ariadne puffed her chest out in pride as she took in the stunned looks of her senpai.
Leaning forward, she put herself close to Tsukasa to look up at him, Rindou and Azami. "Next time, you might want to do some research before you try to pick a fight you can't win."
With that, Ariadne turned on her heel, flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and strutted away, pleased with herself for the bombshell she had just dropped.
END
Kyandi: You sound so much more badass than you really are.
Ariadne: But I am…in the culinary world.
Kyandi: That you are. Though, are you really? I mean, every recipe you use, I tried out first.
Ariadne: But can you do it with the flair that I do?
Kyandi: …. I don't even want to answer that.
Ariadne: Because it's a no.
Kyandi: Shut up! Anyway, before she decides to pick on me more –
Ariadne: Which is really just you picking on yourself since I'm a figment of your imagination!
Kyandi: I said shut up! Everyone, enjoy and review.
Ariadne: We'll return as soon as possible.
Kyandi: Bye-bye!
