G'day! I hope you've all been well :)

I've created a poll on my profile for you guys: "Which OC Character do you like best in 'A Touch of Saffron'?". Check it out and choose your favourite gal/s or guy (poor Kuchiyose is just by himself lol) and you can have a look at what others have voted too :)

Please enjoy my parting chapter. I swear on my pretty floral bonnet, I'll be back :)


Chapter 24 – Four Strikes, Mimasaka Subaru


"FufufufuDay One. You think you could evade me, Takumi Aldini. But I'm always prepared and nothing escapes my notice. Right down to a gnat's eyebrow"

Subaru was ecstatic he would battle against the Italian one-trick pony again. How many more times will he get the chance to whoop his arse? The Italian must be finding this humiliating to face his maker for the second time. The first time he executed a reconnaissance on the Aldini, he had garnered a lot of interesting information about him. Every tiny habit of his at home, average hour of sleep, preferred grip on the chef's knife, favourite drink to go with certain foods, phobias, birthmarks, most commonly worn underpants, whether he was a 'scruncher' or a 'folder'. Just everything. It said everything about his cooking style. He'd spent weeks learning all the details about him. Subaru licked his thick lips in glee.

Everything paid off and he even successfully baited him into a shokugeki, which he knew he'd fall for. Just as he foresaw, the Aldini tragically lost his precious mezzaluna to him. It was too easy! The Italian one-trick pony was too easy to emulate! He knew the Aldini was going to throw that white glove at him declaring his Galateo del Duello because Aldini saw himself as an upright honourable Italian gentleman. He was predictable and of course, he couldn't resist going all Italian-mafia on him. He remembered how much his face twisted in icy rage when he spat cruel words about his brother to him. Ha! He wore his heart on his sleeve like some pansy! If he was going to get hurt that much because one guy said something bad against his brother, he didn't deserve to be a man at all, much less a chef. Not only did he get away with taunting his brother, the clincher was defeating him and stealing away his fated rematch against Yukihira in the Autumn Election semi-finals.

Then he lost every single one of his conquest prizes to that damn, low class diner chef. His ninety-nine consecutive wins were ripped from his grasp and had found his first loss with Yukihira to be a crushing blow. He was back at the bottom again.

Now this was different. It was the reshuffling of the Elite Ten seats. Subaru resumed his steadfast concentration at the task at hand. His information on Takumi Aldini needed updating and the latest data he collected was that Takumi Aldini got himself a girlfriend and a new squad.

"Her name is Kanda Ayame. Sixteen years old. Goes to Karakura High school, class 2. Aspires to be a mechanical and robotics engineer. Heh. She's quite a looker too. He sure goes for the cute types" Subaru flicked through his memories, flipping the imaginary pages of expansive data he stored away into his mental file for Takumi Aldini.

Ever since he entered Tootsuki, he'd taught himself strategies to remember an incredible amount of information. It was famously known as Method of Loci. Subaru found it mighty useful. It was a well-known method of memory enhancement which used visualization to organize and recall information. Chefs have stock rooms or food pantries to store their ingredients and he treated his long-term memory the same way. He called it his Memory Pantry. He imagined it as a wide open stock pantry and he stored his data in bottles, tubs, jars, bags and recipe card boxes. He could enter his Memory pantry whenever he wanted to review his information raiding. Whilst spying on many students, he had gained a wide depth of cooking knowledge, enough to improve all sorts of dishes from different cultures and styles to be better than his opponents who specialised in those fields. Thanks to his ability to scavenge enormous amounts of information in little time, he knew every single student in the school inside and out. Right down to a gnat's eyebrow.

Eizan-senpai's faction was disbanded the day after his arrest and it honestly didn't come as much of a shock. That guy was messed up in the head. It didn't make a difference to him because the prick always let him go wild in his shokugekis whenever he wanted. He wasn't too fussed about knowing every single thing about Eizan-senpai anyway because that guy never lifted a knife seriously in his time at Tootsuki. He only bothered stalking people he was interested in defeating. He didn't feel a sense of loyalty to him in the first place. Subaru was one of the first people the police had interviewed about Eizan-senpai's insider trading. Luckily he was let off the hook when they found out that he really had nothing to do with his senpai's crime or had anything helpful to give them, but they still kept tabs on him now and again.

He had a sneaking suspicion they were using Isshiki Satoshi to keep an eye on him and that was truly annoying.

"Namikaze Chizuru. Same age, same school. Gamer girl. League of Legends champion is Ezreal. Player name is RizaRaiQui. Diagnosed with congenital anosmia." Subaru continued to reel through his Memory pantry.

"Kuchiyose Byakko. Same age, same school. Star soccer player of Karakura High school. Illegally drives an AE86 trueno. Nakiri Alice's ex-boyfriend. Was dumped over a year ago…"

Mimasaka Subaru wasn't hiding up in the tree behind the Kanda residence just to review information on Takumi Aldini's new cheer squad. No, he was here to spy on him. The Italian boy decided to practice his cooking over at his girlfriend's house today, obviously trying his best to give him the slip by going somewhere other than his home or school. Hah, but Mimasaka Subaru never suffered fools gladly. From his perch in the tree, he was expertly clad in camouflage wear. He held his binoculars to his eyes and notebook and paper in his hand. Ordinarily he would write his findings down, read it over until he remembered it by heart and then burned the book. The tree he was staking out in wasn't that tall, but its foliage was thick enough to adequately cover him and he could see through to kitchen window.

Unfortunately, the blinds were partially closed so he couldn't see clearly, but he got a copy of Aldini's grocery receipt from the checkout boy he managed to wrangle out at the Karakura honchou supermarket. The Aldini brothers have been enjoying that place lately.

"Hehe. According to this list of ingredients, it seems like he's practicing decoction"

The tell-tale clang of a heavy pot being hefted onto the stove told him what he needed to know. He chuckled eagerly to see his predictions were running on the right tracks. Decoction was a method of extraction by the boiling of dissolved chemicals from herbal or plant material, which may include stems, roots and bark. In other words, he was extracting oils, and extracts could be used in a variety of dishes. Subaru continued to scribble his notes into his notebook whilst he continued to analyse the shadows moving around behind the blinds.

This was going to be a piece of—

"What the fuck are you doing in my yard?"

Subaru jolted from his spot in the tree, the leaves slightly rustled. Who was there? Who said that? Did they just say it was his yard? Oh fuck, one of Takumi's girlfriend's family member was home. Judging by the voice, he could be the father or the brother. He predicted that those two lovebirds wouldn't be alone in the house for too long and that someone was bound to come home. However he didn't count on being found out. He approximated that working hours usually ended at eight o'clock, meaning he would have had enough time to leave before getting caught. He didn't expect someone to be home early. Subaru knew he was completely hidden in the tree because even the stray cats didn't sense him. Also his camouflaged gear was on point, he made it himself. He found it unbelievable that some ordinary person was able to pick him out that effortlessly.

"Get out from there before I chop the fucking tree down with you in it"

Subaru screwed his eyebrows together and shuffled his hulking body down the tree. He'd never been caught for espionage and was greatly disturbed that someone was able to spot him from his perfect hide out. He noted the deep and gruff growl coming from the man and how threatening it was.

"Alright, alright. I'm coming down"

When he turned around, Mimasaka Subaru found himself staring into the eyes of a handsome devil. The man had his right hand resting against the handle of a sword secured by his hip, his thumb ready to push the blade out by the golden hilt. He kept one eye on the swordand the other on the man. He gulped. The man had one long eyebrow raised up and his chiselled jaw was set firmly. He had long, midnight blue hair tied up tightly and it swayed dangerously against the breeze of the evening air, reminding him of a vicious samurai. Subaru resisted the urge to shiver at the coldness in his eyes and he felt as if his soul had been sucked out of him from that glare alone. This man was sporting a trench coat, dress shirt and tie, trousers and thick boots. He had went up against many intimidating fuckers in Eizan-senpai's faction, but he'd never felt his life being threatened as he did now.

"Care to explain?" he growled.

He cleared his throat.

"My sincerest apologies, but I noticed there was an 'o konoha zuku' or the 'collared scops owl' in your tree for some time now. I'm researching different species of owls in the Western Tokyo area for my project. I had to get this chance to study its distribution. I'm sorry for causing you inconvenience" Subaru delivered his prepared excuse expertly, making sure to put on an act of being a very dedicated nocturnal bird-watcher. He bowed and handed one of his notebooks to the man with both hands and he took it without a word and flicked through it.

On the outside, people saw him as honourable and friendly, but on the inside he was sadistic and cruel. He knew when and where to switch those two façades. He watched as the man with the sword, skimmed his eyes over the pages with utter boredom. Down to a gnat's eyebrows had multiple meanings. Not only did he not let any slight detail escape him, he also had multiple contingency plans and created heaps of alibis for himself. He had created a fake notebook beforehand filled with owl sketches, some random Japanese owl information and notes in there, arranged in a way to look like a scientific field data collection notebook.

"I hear no owls" said the man, snapping the book shut.

"Ah, yes well… I'm just having a look at its habitat for now" he said, wringing his hands together.

"Beat it before I slice off all your African braids and sell it to a hair salon" he growled. The scowl intensified. He tilted the handle of his sword towards Subaru in warning.

Subaru took it as a sign to re-group. He had to admit, he didn't get as much information as he wanted to say the least and so his recon-operation was cut short by the unexpected early appearance of one of Aldini's girlfriend's family members. He definitely had to be the father. He should do some more research on her family too. Who the hell was he to carry around a samurai sword so publicly? He quickly grabbed his stuff and skedaddled before the tall and frightening man changed his mind.


"Okie-dokie, day two"

Mimasaka Subaru wasn't able to get much more information on Takumi's girlfriend's family. It was like he'd hit a road block, which was frustrating. So far she seemed perfectly ordinary. Too ordinary. He went through their mail and found nothing that was particularly identifying as to who her parents were. He did web searches of her name and found thousands of 'Kanda Ayame's as they were really common girls' names. Next, he even did web searches for 'Katana' and 'Kanda' in the same search bar, but the pages wouldn't pull up. He never saw the mother and he could only assume the man who confronted him was the father. It bugged him, but that wasn't the priority right now. What mattered was that he found a new hiding spot.

This time it was a thick bush to the side of the house.

Subaru upgraded his camouflage gear to include more sprigs and leaves to mat his mottled khaki and brown pattern. He also included face paint for extra measure. This should do the trick. He was going to be more mindful when that man would return from work and remembered to keep his ear peeled, so as to not have a repeat of the other day. It was a blow to his pride as a professional stalker, but he sucked it up. Mimasaka Subaru never abandoned a reconnaissance mission. He tilted his binoculars up so that he could get a different angle on the kitchen window. It was a tight spot, but he could manage. The two lovebirds had returned from the grocery store and he once again got a hold of the receipt.

"Heh. Desserts today" murmured Subaru as he read through the list of sweet ingredients.

This was going to be a piece of—

Flashing white light blinded the bejesus out of him.

Subaru dropped his binoculars and covered his eyes from the painful brightness. When they no longer stang and dripped with tears, he managed to peep through his gloved fingers and saw a tall silhouette approaching him. The sound of thick boots clunking on the empty driveway got closer and closer until he could hear the tap, tap, tapping of a thumb on a metal hilt.

'Oh man, it's him again'

His gut wrenched. He could barely make out a black sedan and it had the high-beam on full blast directed at him and the bush. It was parked sideways, in the middle of the road like a maniac driver with its sole purpose to face directly at him. It was like he never intended to pull up into the driveway and just parked his car anywhere he damned like as long as he could point those high-beams at him and the bush. Subaru was starting to get super annoyed now, but he quelled his irritation.

"Ah hello again" Subaru faked a bashful smile. "I know this must look like—"

"Get the fuck up and go"

Without a word he picked up his notebooks and skedaddled.


"I won't make the same mistake again. Day three's the charm"

Subaru sat in the small park in Kitakawase, not to far from Aldini's girlfriend's house. This time he had no camouflage gear with him, just his school uniform because he had a new and better plan. He noticed that there was always a small gap to the side the blinds were unable to cover at the kitchen window.

That was where he planted his special GoPro camera with built in bluetooth and dual mic-system.

It was late in the afternoon and he didn't need to tail the Aldini this time because he had a full-proof plan C. He had skipped classes this morning so that he could pull this next recon-mission off. He sat on the park bench and had his laptop open, playing the live feed. He adjusted the earphones over his above-average sized head and turned the volume up. The camera was small, about the size of a bracelet gift box, so it was easy to mount in the bottom corner of the window and keep it hidden from view. From this angle, he could see half the kitchen, but no view of the living room. Basically, all he needed was to see Aldini and he was cutting up some vegetables whilst his girlfriend was doing her homework on the dining table.

"Have you heard back from your mother yet?" asked the Aldini.

"Yep, her business trip had been extended again" she sighed.

"That's about the third time she's got that extension, right? Where is she at the moment" replied Aldini.

"Yeah well, that's working life for you haha. She's currently in Shanghai" she chuckled while it sounded like she was pushing buttons on a calculator.

"I'm thinking of using elements from my spice seminar assignment for the competition"

"But you don't even have the theme for your battle yet" replied his girlfriend.

"No, I'm talking about the techniques I used and maybe the concept even, not the actual recipe, mio caro. Techniques can be applied to any theme"

Subaru had a photocopy of the assignment right there with him. It wasn't marked by Shiomi-sensei yet, but it looked pretty damn good and he intended to make the most of it if he had to. The audio quality didn't disappoint. The video feed was sharp since he paid good money for his piece of equipment. In all honesty he could have just dropped this espionage and went with what he had, but he genuinely enjoyed the process of sneaking around and uncovering information. He was going to pull this recon-mission successfully. He usually didn't use his special GoPro camera but desperate times called for desperate measures. He had made a third attempt dig out information about Aldini's little girlfriend's family but this time came up with only small stuff. Her mother worked in for a banking firm and was currently overseas, Kanda Ayame had entered in multiple junior engineering competitions for middle school and high school levels. Surprisingly he found more information about her friends than her. Namikaze worked at the local second hand bookstore and Kuchiyose's family ran a tofu shop. This was starting to be more challenging than he thought.

Subaru looked down and began writing some notes, concentrating on his target. So far Aldini was practicing a variety of cutting techniques. There were about a hundred different methods depending on which cuisine, but currently he was practicing some Mediterranean cutting styles.

"Ayame, CIA boy. Go to the car and get those bags in here. The old fart discovered express mail for the billionth time and sent us weird shit to our old address again"

"Y-Yes sir"

"OTOU-SAN! His name is Takumi Aldini!"

Aldini had shock written all over him. Recognition and uneasiness flashed through his eyes as he quickly nodded to that unmistakable voice. Yep, her father was back again. Subaru snorted derisively at the clearly offensive nickname and how the Aldini couldn't say a word back at her father, relying on his little girlfriend to stand up for him.

"Do it, before he's forever known as 'Nazi-boy'"

"Grrrrrr"

"D-don't worry about it Ayame..."

Such a pansy. Aldini put down the kitchen knife and hastily wiped his hands on his apron before scuttling out the kitchen. The sound of scraping chair also told him his little girlfriend wasted no time following her father's orders. Finally, the tall man came into view as he strode into the kitchen. He looked exactly the same as the other two times he encountered him, except he wasn't carrying the sword or the coat. He ignored Aldini's ingredients on the kitchen bench and zeroed in on the fridge. Subaru held his breath and leaned closer to his laptop screen, watching and analysing. The father was drinking something from the fridge at the same time checking his mail. Then he tossed the envelopes across the kitchen until it landed on the dining table with a swoosh. Subaru could hear, but couldn't see Aldini and his girlfriend dragging in said heavy bags, pants, grunts and shuffling noises relayed back through his headphones. They were probably dumping them in the living room, but he kept is attention on the father.

In a blink of an eye, the father was staring at him right through the screen.

Subaru's breath hitched.

'Shit! He's spotted the camera!'

His body didn't shift from his position by the fridge, only his coal-black eyes moved. The father's eyebrows into an arrogant and nasty lour. In four swift strides, the camera lens was blocked by an eye full of white dress shirt. The view began to jiggle up and down violently as the beast of a man pulled the blinds aside, opened the window and grabbed the camera. Bursts of random loud noises erupted into his headphones as fingers were all over the camera inbuilt mic. The father didn't say a single word as he tilted the camera upwards so that the visual was steady again. He was glaring down into the lens, directly as Subaru, a knowing smirk played out across his lips like a shark.

"Tch"

"Otou-san, what are you doing?" he could still manage to hear Aldini's girlfriend's voice, but he was anchored to the spot and none of his muscles remained frozan. Sweat poured from his brow and couldn't rip his eyes away from the man.

"I'm going out. I've got an owl to catch"

The laptop screen erupted into a burst of grey and white static waves and he yanked his headphones off from an explosion of super high frequency sound waves. The last thing he saw was grinning, sharp teeth and menacingly cold eyes.

Subaru packed up his things and high-tailed it out of the park.


"Man, this is getting so fucked up"

Subaru grunted as he paced up and down in a different section of the park. He'd fucking lost his special GoPro camera. There was no way he was setting foot back in that place to retrieve what remains of it was left. That reconnaissance last time didn't even last twenty minutes before he had to retreat back to Tootsuki. He stayed up all night waiting for that demon samurai to track him down and pay him a visit and skewer him. He had went so far as to set traps outside his dormitory room and window, but he never came. He was no ordinary man and Subaru was having extreme difficulty figuring out who he was. He refused to give up. He was the master of espionage and analysing his targets was his game.

This was going to be his last shot. He had managed to plant an audio bug onto Aldini directly.

Subaru predicted that the girlfriend's father was probably keeping check around the house for other suspicious cameras so he stayed well clear. All he had to do was bump into the stupid Italian during Chef Chapelle's class and just like that, he stuck on an audio bug under the collar of his school blazer. The stupid little prick didn't even suspect a thing and thought that he was just jerking him around. He enjoyed watching him yap like a tiny Chihuahua, screaming random Italian expletives while his equally stupid brother held him back. He had paid very good money for this piece of equipment, although not as much as the camera, and this was the first time he was using it. Aldini had this little habit where he would always place his blazer on the back of the dining chair that was closest to the kitchen. The audio bug had a wide audio range so it would be able to hear across the kitchen and probably living room clearly. Also, it's signal was quite strong, reaching a couple of kilometres so he would be able to listen into the conversation from a distant place without a hitch. From there, he could analyse their conversation and uncover more information.

Subaru adjusted his headphones as he crouched behind a bush in the park. He wasn't taking any chances if her father did a drive-by in that black sedan around town. He was decked out in his home-made camouflage gear along with his face paint so that he would blend into the park bush perfectly, just to be on the safe side.

For the past hour, he'd been listening to random rubbish about rockets and submarines coming from the Aldini's little girlfriend. He quickly grew bored and irritated since there was no mention of any cooking at all. She wouldn't stop talking! She kept going on and on and on and to make it worse, Aldini kept asking her questions about her blasted rockets and submarines, and she wasn't shutting up anytime soon. He'd researched her interests, but had no idea that she was such an obsessive know-it-all for the hard sciences. How did Aldini stand her?

"I can't believe they increased the price on eggs…" said the girlfriend.

Finally! Something about food.

"I know right? Normally eggs are on special" Aldini replied.

"Well at least we got really nice and fresh capsicum. Look how big and shiny they are?"

Subaru grinned wickedly. He didn't need to sneak around and retrieve their receipts this time because they were discussing openly about what ingredients they were buying in the supermarket, all heard by him through his audio bug. He heard the jangle of keys, full knowing that they finally reached his girlfriend's house.

"Oh Otou-san. You're home early!" she said.

Subaru shuddered at the mention of her father. He convinced himself he was perfectly safe. There was no way that man was going to figure out his plan D.

"Tch"

"Good afternoon, Kanda-san. Did y-you have a good day at the—"

"I'm fine. Hurry up and stop fucking dawdling"

Subaru chuckled as the Aldini got cut off by the gruff man. That guy was always in a foul mood and swore like a sailour. Aldini's voice was laced with anxiety as he tried to feign bravery in greeting his girlfriend's father. The sound of rustling grocery bags being plonked on the kitchen bench caught his attention.

"So which recipe are you going to start off first? The Japanese one? Or the Chinese one?" asked the girlfriend.

"I'm going to practice some traditional Japanese dishes. I got it from Marui-san. He's one of the Polarstar Dorm members. But first I—"

"CIA-boy, come here. Ayame, go get a pack of ice"

Subaru rubbed his chin and sighed. Damn, he was about to hear exactly what the Aldini was planning for the day. At least he could add 'ransack Marui Zenji's Polarstar dorm room' to his agenda. Her father was beyond demanding and was always throwing wrenches into his plan.

"What for, Otou-san? Are you injured?"

"Just do it"

The voice sounded louder and clearer meaning Aldini obeyed and was probably standing in front of her father. He had a sinking feeling in his gut, but he continued to psyche himself up that this was probably nothing and there was no way her father found his audio-bug.

"Hold still" said the man in a low voice.

"I-Is everything alright Kanda-san? Huh? O-Oi! Please h-hold on for a second… Why are you holding your sword like that at me? Wait! WAAH!- Scrshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

Uh oh

No matter how much Subaru tried to adjust the audio on his laptop. He could only hear the sharp and incessant crackle of static and jumbled frequencies through his headphone. His laptop slid from his knees and onto the grass. He sat there like a sitting duck. He couldn't believe it. He just couldn't. That was his ultimate plan and the last one he had. He found the audio-bug. There were no more tricks up his sleeves. He'd just lost both of his most prized espionage equipment in less than two weeks.

There was nothing he could do. Just who the hell was that man? He couldn't find anything identifying about him! It was like he could sense his daughter and her boyfriend were being watched and their conversations were being tapped. He knew exactly where the camera and the audio bug was like he had a sixth sense. He packed up his gear and walked slowly away from the park.

"Aldini… you will pay…"


SLAM!

Subaru looked up from his notes, which he was busy reviewing to permanently store in his Memory pantry. He was currently in the most secluded part of the school library where other students wouldn't dare approach because they knew this was his hangout to compile and solidify his information.

"These are yours, I believe"

It was an incredibly smug-looking Takumi Aldini. His blue eyes were burning with victory and his lips were upturned into a haughty smirk. His uniform looked incredibly pristine as ever. His hands rested against his hips and he jutted them out, like he already won the whole damn Elite Ten competition. Subaru glanced down and saw a mess of electrical wires and silver coloured plastic shards. Next to it was a GoPro camera with a cracked outer casing, and its SD card flap open and no SD card inside.

"I was going to give it to my girlfriend to pull apart and tinker with to her heart's content. But I thought I'd better show you the 'fruits of your efforts' instead"

It was his audio bug smashed to pieces and the empty, no-longer-functioning GoPro camera.

"You've been wasting a lot of time trying to spy on me. I'm surprised you were willing to make four attempts. I thought you would've learnt your lesson since the first time and realised that your dirty tactics will no longer work on me" said Aldini in a leveled voice.

Subaru chuckled. This earned him a confused look from Takumi Aldini.

"You dunce. My perfect trace is what defeated you and will defeat you again. As far as I'm concerned you are the first person I will have a repeat battle against and I'm going to make my second win as delicious as possible and make it as twice as shameful for you. So yes, four attempts to secure it is a small price to pay. Heh, at least you grew some brains and didn't discard your receipts this time. But that still is not enough" said Subaru, standing up from his chair and dwarfing the blond Aldini's smaller form. He procured out a stapled bundle of supermarket dockets and waved it at his face. The blonde Italian peered closer and just sighed.

"I know you and your little girlfriend have been making trips to the supermarket for your ingredients. It wasn't actually that hard to get a copy of the receipts from the checkout. You saved me the trouble from digging through your trash" cackled Mimasaka Subaru.

"Ayame and I have been making separate purchases at different checkout counters. I knew you were going to do something like this. I asked her to buy what I wanted to practice with while I bought what she wanted to eat at school. You're actually holding her receipts. I wasn't joking when I said I'd be ten steps ahead of you"

Subaru was flabbergasted. He saw with his own eyes through his own binoculars that the two of them were together at one checkout counter… unless they also bought their items at different times… Subaru crushed the dockets in his apish hands and stuffed them back into his pockets, gritting his teeth.

"Have you learnt nothing from your defeat with Yukihira?"

"I don't give a flying fuck about him. He thinks he's some matyr, that he could change me with just one loss. Here's news for you. People don't change and I ain't about to. They just become a better or worse version of themselves. Right now, I got something better in me emerging. You might not see it now, but the whole damn world will soon enough"

"Sul serio? You are so petty. You lost against Yukihira and now you don't feel so mighty anymore and you're covering it up by degrading yourself and picking on people you already triumphed over. You bury yourself in your past glories and are too scared to face forward or what's ahead of you. Too afraid to change for the future. You are pathetic"

Subaru gnashed his teeth as his shackles started to rise.

'Why that little son of a—!"

"Also! I can't believe you didn't figure out Ayame on your own soon enough" he asked.

'What the fuck?'

Subaru didn't like where this was heading, so he puffed out his chest, trying to show the Aldini that he wasn't intimidating him in the least.

"What's there to know about your little girlfriend? I know where she lives now, thanks to you" he licked his lips at the Aldini and he visual bristled and glared at him savagely. Yeah, that got him to shut up, all he had to do was make a go at his girlfriend to stir him up that badly.

The Aldini scoffed at his face. His eyes narrowed and transformed into molten cobalt.

"Do you know how her father was able to foil your despicable plans so easily? He's with the police. He runs TMPD and is both an expert swordsman and a kendouka. That's why. He could easily sense where suspicious people like you are hiding with his eyes closed and is extremely observant of where all the camera and listening devices are hiding. That's how experienced he is and you should have figured that out"

"Hmmm… So that's why you've been practicing at her house. Using her father like a guard-dog. How pathetic can you get?" he rubbed his chin, staring down at him gleeful condescension.

The Aldini shook his head and had the balls to sigh at him. Now he was getting on Subaru's nerves.

"It worked to my advantage. I outwitted you and wasted your time. So much for your super-stalking powers" the Aldini continued to taunt him.

"So what if I did had a little trouble researching? Ha! Eventually everything, every little scrap of information, will be laid out before me even if your little girlfriend is not a Tootsuki student. I could use a little challenge to improve on my spying skills, like I did to your inferior lemon-curd semifreddo, couldn't I?" Subaru advanced on the Aldini and was slightly displeased to see that he didn't back down and he glared harder up at him. Was the Aldini baiting him with his own girlfriend?

"How about I find out what pyjamas' she wears? What bra and panties she likes? Her favourite sleeping position? Maybe even how she likes to bathe herself? What sensitive areas get her squealing? Hehehehe"

Subaru licked his lips and took sickening pleasure in the unleashed fury and ire blazing in the Italian prick's eyes. His jaw was clenched so tightly that his teeth started to chatter. His face was as red as the devil himself and his lips pulled over his teeth into a boiling snarl. His body coiled and uncoiled wanting to punch the daylights out of Subaru, but restraining himself like a goody-two-shoes he was. Ha! Saying nasty things about his girlfriend got a bigger and funnier reaction than talking shit about his brother.

"You fool. You understand nothing. She's the Superintendent General of the TMPD's daughter. If you cross me, then you cross her and then you cross her father too. Unless you want to share a cell with Eizan, or worse, have your own body-bag, then I suggest you keep out of my business, and hers and mind your own, you dishonourable low-life" seethed the Aldini.

Soon the temperature in the library rose as the animosity between the students sky-rocketed, their fighting spirits clashing with each other. The Aldini wanted to raise hell? Then he will up the fucking ante and torture him in the competition. He will bring the fucking party.

"There's no way you can beat me again with those same cheap and dirty tactics. And don't you EVER talk about my girlfriend like that again, or I will CUT you with your own knife"


"How's your shoulder?"

Takumi winced as he removed his blazer and placed it on his coat hanger. It was after school and he and Ayame were hanging out at his place, taking a break from his culinary training at her house. Isami was once again having a phone date with Bianca and was gushing all over the place outside on the balcony. Ayame found it incredibly amusing as that was the first thing he did when they got back to Minamikawase. She asked him to say 'Hi' to Bianco from her and he was ecstatic to do so.

Takumi and Isami found it quite enjoyable to make a trip to her high school and escort Ayame back to their place to hang out. They stopped by at Meshina for some ice cream as well. She'd been staying back at later hours working on some things which provided ample time for Takumi and Isami to take their own breather, just walking around to clear their heads around Karakura Town as they made their way to Karakura High school. Luckily Namikaze had already left at the usual home-time to get to her part-time work while Kuchiyose went off to after-school soccer practice for the next interschool tournament, according to Ayame. The weather had already started to get chillier as Autumn approached and the tree leaves began to turn with the seasons. Ayame's uniform changed too. Now she was donning her grey, red-trimmed school blazer along with her usual grey skirt instead of the knitted beige vest. Likewise, he'd been seeing Namikaze and Kuchiyose do the same on other occasions.

"It's ok. Although, I don't think it was necessary for your father to jab the handle of his sword onto my shoulder that hard. It only hurts a bit now… he could've just removed the listening device by hand" said Takumi.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I think he was starting to get a bit annoyed at your friend snooping around my house. I think if he came back for the fifth times, Otou-san would literally draw his katana, not caring if he was a minor or not" said Ayame, placing another ice pack on his shoulder.

' 'Abit annoyed' was an understatement… he hit me hard enough to crush the bloody thing into hundreds of pieces'

Takumi could still remember clearly the sound and feel of a sickening crunch. It was like an armoured cockroach was squished on his shoulder and it hurt like hell. Her father had actually held up his sword and rammed the butt of the handle onto his shoulder without any hesitation or a twitch in his face.

"That unforgivable creep is hardly my friend" he growled.

"How did your confrontation with him go?" she asked.

Takumi decided not to reveal the abhorrent things Mimasaka threatened him with about Ayame. He didn't want her worry. He decided not to give her the broken audio-bug or the broken GoPro camera as she already had so many circuit boards in her room and her father had recently brought home a broken lie detecting machine for her to play with. He didn't want to add to the clutter in her room. Mostly, he wanted them to serve as a reminder to Mimasaka to never get in his way again.

"He won't be coming near you or me anymore, that's for sure. The possibility of him dropping his underhanded ways is looking impossible. He refuses to see that cooking solely to crush and humiliate his opponents will only be a self-destructive end. If Yukihira and I couldn't talk sense into him, then nothing will. He can't change."

Ayame hummed a bit. "I don't think it's as black and white as people can or cannot change. It's more like some are ready to change and others are not. One reason people resist change is that they focus on what they have to give up rather than what they have to gain. It takes a great deal of courage to see that if all you have is what you have"

Takumi turned his head towards Ayame. He looked at her and for some reason he could have sworn there was some sort of glow around her. Then he realised that it was just his imagination because he was just in awe. Ayame looked back at him and she slowly turned pink under his heavy gaze. Takumi was taken completely off guard about what she had just said. Here he was, sulking and ranting about how despicable Mimasaka was and he dragged her and her father into his plan to throw back Mimasaka's creepy-stalker-fetish into his ugly mug. Meanwhile, Ayame was overseeing everything from the merciful side of the whole ordeal. Maybe she was right. Spying and sneaking around was the only way Mimasaka knew how to fight his battles and so he clang onto it like a lifeline. Maybe deep down he was too scared to change and the only reason he was hell-bent on continuing to be such a bastardo was because he didn't know how to his methods. He probably thought he was already beyond redemption. Takumi truly pitied him.

"You have more than advanced scientific factoids in there" Takumi smiled and gently prodded her in the forehead.

She giggled like wind chimes and poked him back in the cheeks. "With friends like Chizuru-chan and Kuchiyose-kun. One must learn to think from all angles when trouble comes along"

"Well said, mio caro. I am grateful that your father agreed to let me practice cooking in your home. I wasn't sure if he would put up with it, since you told me he'd been taking more frequent breaks from his work and I'm probably the last person he wants to see around the house"

"He can't say 'no' to a face like mine" she smiled brightly up at him.

Takumi settled onto the sofa with Ayame nestled by his side. Truthfully, he wouldn't be able to say no to her either when she smiled up at him like that. He'd been seeing exactly what it meant to be 'daddy's little princess' and how much Ayame could wrap that terrifying police officer around her pinky. Other than that, his amore was the most supportive and best girlfriend in the world and he couldn't be happier even if he won first seat in the Elite Ten competition. He stroked the tops of her head and kissed her sweetly on the forehead. He breathed in her scent, filling his lungs completely. Now she and her father had delicious food stocked up in the fridge. That was the least he could do for causing them so much trouble.

"You know, Mimasaka couldn't find any information about you, and your father being the Superintendent General in the first place. He's quite well known thought, right? If he found out who he was in the beginning he would've quit this creepy stalking. Do you have any ideas about that?"

Ayame rubbed her face against his unharmed shoulder and yawned. She must be tired, and he was starting to feel the weariness too.

"Yeah, he is very well known, but only within certain circles and he prefers to keep it that way. He hates attention. Otou-san has a cybercrime division under him. Part of their job is to monitor and censor information relating to police officers and their families to make sure we're protected from criminals and yakuza who seek revenge or something like that. So not many people can find links between Okaa-san and I with him. Also Otou-san used to be part of the JSDF therefore information about him is confidential and quite scarce" said Ayame as her voice grew quieter and muffled. She swung her feet up onto the sofa and curled herself like a cat by his side.

"I see. Umm… Wh-when will he stop calling me 'CIA-boy'?"

"Hmm... When will Chizuru-chan ever acknowledge your given name?"

"…never…"

He admit defeat to that. It was a silly question on his part. With people like them in his daily life, who needs enemies?


Takumi does have his badass moments.

Writing in Mimasaka's perspective was tricky. I don't know him as well as the other characters. In my story he hasn't reflected on his wrong doing and nothing has changed. I thought it sounded too idealistic if he abandoned his methods over ONE loss. If YOU failed at something ONCE, would you give up? I don't think so, and neither would Mimasaka. My personal belief is that people don't often learn from their first failure and Mimasaka.

Ayame's father is still being the typical 'alpha dad', but he seems to be tolerating Takumi fine. Takumi will need to try harder to earn her father's approval and respect haha!

Let me know what you think and I'll see you soon!

Signing off

-TripWire-dono