A/N: Doesn't it suck when people say you're wrong about something you wrote when you published your story a long time before the reveal came out to the public? Well, whatever… The manga has taken an interesting turn, I can't wait to see what happens next.

The pole for the romantic interest in the Halloween Special is finished. The results for it are at the end of this chapter. It went sort of how I expected.

Also, attention, I have a tumblr blog where I post stuff (ideas and questions and thoughts and more) about this account. So… Follow me? The name is "stygianhazardff"

Disclaimer: I do not own Shokugeki no Sōma. And every time I read this manga, I get hungry.

Sōma yawned tiredly as he walked over towards his cooking theory class. He had spent the whole night partying with some of the other members of the Polar Star Dormitory. It lasted almost until the sun rose. It was worth it though. Fumio-san had brought in some good stuff to celebrate. Apparently it had been a while since a Polar Star Dormitory resident had had such a good Shokugeki showing, especially against an opponent who was regarded as being obviously superior. Not since the golden age with Asura, whoever that was.

Students rushed passed him in their attempt to get to class on time. Sōma continued his leisurely pace towards the class. He could already see the door from where he was. He still had a few minutes to make it. Plenty of time. From his spot, he could just make out a student sitting in the very back near the door. A student with snow white hair and pale skin. Sōma narrowed his eyes in thought at the sight of her.

After the Shokugeki, he had tried to chase Alice down to talk to her. He hadn't seen her outside of class after the day that she had stopped by to help him try some dishes for the Shokugeki. Just when he was about to go and ask her about why that was, he couldn't find her. To be more exact, he had gotten lost. The building was ridiculously big. He had searched for almost 15 minutes before finally giving up. Now, he was going to ask her what was going on back then.

Sōma walked in just as Malfroid-sensei came in through the side door. The professor glanced up at Sōma with an appraising look before quickly looking back down on his desk to jot something down. Sōma didn't notice this though; he was busy pulling a chair out and sitting in it while lightly staring at the girl who was now next to him.

"Yo, Alice-san. Did you enjoy the Shokugeki yesterday?" Sōma questioned with a small smirk on his face.

Alice turned and face him slowly, slightly shocked at Sōma's nonchalant manner in sitting next to her.

Sōma couldn't be quite sure, but he felt that there was something a lot different about her. There was a look on her face that seemed out of place. He couldn't tell why though. He had only sat next to her and asked her a question. Maybe he should have said hello first.

"Hey?" Sōma said questioningly after a moment.

Alice turned back towards the board and rested her head in the palm of her hand, strategically using her fingers to cover a growing smile on her face. "Congratulations on winning, Yukihira Sōma-kun."

"Thank you." Sōma said sincerely, though his growing smirk did nothing to hide his preening at her words.

Down below, Malfroid-sensei had started to lecture. Neither Alice nor Sōma paid him much mind though. Alice jotted down notes when needed and Sōma only started paying attention closely when the professor mentioned something interesting. Besides that, the class continued on like that for a while.

"Neh, Yukihira Sōma-kun?" Alice asked quietly once Malfroid-sensei had his back turned to put some more diagrams on the board while explaining the history of fusion cuisine and the dynamics behind it.

"Hm?" Sōma turned to glance at her discreetly. "What's up, Alice-san?"

"I was wondering… What do you think would happen if you and I opened a restaurant together?" Alice asked quietly. She didn't look at Sōma at all; she focused all of her attention into her notebook as she absentmindedly wrote something in it that Sōma couldn't see.

Sōma's eyes closed in thought as he briefly mused over her sudden question. He smiled suddenly and answered. "Well, we'd be world-renowned I bet."

"Obviously," Alice scoffed. She smirked in approval at his response though. "That wasn't what I was thinking about though. What would we name it?"

"Name it?" Sōma drummed his fingers on the desk thoughtfully. "Sōma's and Alice's Super Awesome Diner."

"No." Alice rolled her eyes. "If we did do something that crazy, it should be Alice's and Sōma's Super Awesome Restaurant."

"Tch," Sōma thought harder before replying. "How about The Maverick Troll's Restaurant?"

"Really?" Alice sighed. "Well, I suppose that's interesting… A bit."

"You try!" Sōma whispered agitatedly while looking down at the desk when the professor looked their way. "Don't you have any ideas?"

Alice pushed her notebook towards him stealthily.

Sōma pulled it closer and glanced down at it before his eyes widened in shock. The page was full from top to bottom with names. "W-what? When did you have time to do all this?"

"Huh?" Alice looked at the page before shrugging nonchalantly. "It only took a couple of minutes."

There was absolutely no way that she was going to tell him that she had been up all night thinking about it because she couldn't sleep after the idea had entered her head. She was up until 3 A.M. thinking about it for some reason.

"Alice and Friend?" Sōma said in a deadpan tone after reading an entry. "Seriously? It doesn't even have my name in the title."

"I'm sure that more people would prefer me to make their meal for them than you." Alice said seriously. A slight twitch of her lip gave her amusement away though.

"I think you and I are going to need to have a Shokugeki to figure out who the head cook of this restaurant is going to be." Sōma said while tightening his headband on his wrist.

"Gladly." Alice leaned forward and smirked. She made sure to cross her arms under her chest to add some emphasis to her statement.

Sōma gulped suddenly. He wasn't sure why he did that though. All he knew was that Alice was a bit too close for comfort. He didn't let it bother him though, although he couldn't stop the flush that was creeping up his face. He coughed lightly and looked back down and Malfroid-sensei. "Uh, we'll plan the date for later, ok?"

Alice blinked at his choice of words before smirking. Her heart sped up a bit at his response though. She didn't let it show and instead replied teasingly. "Oh? It's a date now, is it?"

"Stop it!" Sōma hissed quietly while covering his mouth when Malfroid-sensei had turned to look back at the class. Sōma waited until he was back at the board before replying. "You know what I meant! The date for the Shokugeki! Just the Shokugeki."

"Are you sure?" Alice questioned.

"I'm sure," Sōma took a deep breath before looking back at Alice. "You're dangerous."

"You have no idea." Alice twirled her left bang slowly between her fingers.

"Oh," Sōma looked as though a light bulb had just turned on above his head. "That reminds me. Why were you with Nakiri yesterday?"

"Erina?" Alice's heart skipped a beat at his sudden change in direction. Still, it didn't faze her outwardly at least. Being a Nakiri had its perks. One of those was being able to remain calm under almost all circumstances. The blood demanded it, since anything less than perfection is viewed as a disgrace. Of course, some family members took that more seriously than others. "I just wanted a good seat to see your Shokugeki, so I convinced Erina to let me sit with her."

"I figured as much," Sōma nodded, easily accepting her answer. "Next time, take me there with you. I bet the view is amazing."

"Mhm," Alice hummed thoughtfully. It would be nice to have someone other than Ryō-kun to talk to. Sōma certainly had some interesting commentary on things. "Ok, next time there's a Shokugeki, I'll bring you there and we can watch together."

"Thank you," Sōma grinned gratefully. "You're the best, Alice-san."

"Y-yeah," Alice smiled and looked back down at the notebook between them. She tried to distract how happy those words had made her by rereading the restaurant ideas she had written down there. It wasn't often that she would get flustered. Yet around Sōma, it happened a lot. She was sure it was mainly because she was hiding what family she was a part of from him so she couldn't be her true self exactly. She really was going to tell him, but it didn't feel like it was the right time yet. Maybe she would tell him after the Training Camp. For now, it was nice being able to receive a compliment that wasn't from her family or someone who wanted to be viewed favorably by her family. "You're welcome, Yukihira Sōma-kun."

They continued to make small talk and write new ideas on the notebook page between them until class ended. They learned what they needed to know. Malfroid-sensei hadn't said much new to their ears. Alice had learned all of this stuff in her youth at the Nakiri Mansion. Sōma, on the other hand, could have sworn that he had figured this stuff out as a kid from reading some old cook books in his dad's room.

"You know, we should probably start our project soon." Alice stated as they walked out of class. She absentmindedly noticed other students looking at the two of them while whispering obviously. She turned to look at Sōma's response, yet he was just looking back at her, not paying anyone else any mind.

"Yeah," Sōma agreed. He hadn't thought of the project at all since it was announced during the first day of class. He was too busy focusing on how to beat Ikumi. Now though, he really should focus on school. Not getting kicked out was great, but it would really suck if he flunked out instead. "When would you like to start?"

"Let's see…" Alice thought about it. There was some time before the Training Camp started, but if they started it before that, then it would be hard to get back into it afterwards. Then again, after that would be summer break, then the Autumn Election, and a bunch of other things. Honestly, she was starting to see why the cooking theory class wasn't so well liked. The partner project that spanned the whole year got in the way of all of the events at Tōtsuki. It was hard to focus on those events while doing the project in the background somehow. Still, she was certain they could handle it. Especially after seeing Sōma's performance at the Shokugeki. "How about we just do some research on our own for now? We'll talk more about it after the Training Camp."

"Huh?" Sōma looked confused. "What camp?"

"You don't know?" Alice couldn't tell if she wanted to sigh or laugh. "It's… Well, I'm sure you'll find out soon. I won't spoil the surprise."

"Come on, Alice-san…" Sōma put his hands together and bowed slightly. "Please tell me."

"Hm…" Alice tapped her chin with her finger while gazing at Sōma. After a moment, she smiled and nodded. "Fine, fine… I'll tell you. It's one of the first big walls here at Tōtsuki."

"A big wall?" Sōma asked. "Why a wall?"

"Because people have to get past it," Alice explained. "It's a five day program where all of the first years will go and train. Of course, if you can't keep up, you'll be expelled."

"Oh?" Sōma chuckled. "It seems like the whole reason this academy exists is to just expel people."

"I'm glad you figured that much out on your own." Alice laughed at Sōma's indignant look.

"Well whatever," Sōma checked a clock for the time. "Well, I'm sure we'll both be able to pass something like that easily enough."

"Of course," Alice smiled falsely at Sōma. "As long as neither of us does something stupid."

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Sōma asked in mock irritation.

"Because I get the feeling that you'll do something stupid." Alice said bluntly.

"Just for that, I'm going to make you eat those words." Sōma stated.

"We'll see," Alice said. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Ryō walking down the hall. "Well, I need to get see how Ryō-kun's doing. Plus, I need him to go do stuff for me. I'll see you later, Yukihira Sōma-kun."

"See ya," Sōma replied to her retreating back. He was about to turn around and walk away before he saw that Ryō had noticed Alice running towards him, and by extension him as well. He seemed to huff before turning around to continue walking away. Sōma was sure that this would make Alice even more annoyed.

Sure enough, as soon as Alice was close enough, she started to hit Ryō repeatedly while yelling something at him. Sōma winced sympathetically. He sure was glad that he wasn't Alice's aide.

OMAKE

"Hm?" Sōma got up from his spot on his bed at the sudden sound of something heavy hitting the ground downstairs. "What was that?"

Sōma jumped out of bed and ran downstairs. Once he was there, he saw a bunch of people who looked like movers walking out while rubbing their backs or cracking their fingers or even limping. He stared after them until they left before looking around. Nothing seemed to be different. He decided to follow the path that they seemed to have taken, which led him to the kitchen. Once inside, he looked around in shock.

The kitchen was now filled with a bunch of things that he had never seen before. Based on the smell coming off of them, they seemed to be for cooking. Yet they looked like they belonged in a laboratory or in a space station.

"What the Hell is going on here?!" Sōma yelled out.

"Huh?" Fumio turned to look at him. "Oh, someone is about to take the Entry Exam."

"I was asking about the equipment." Sōma claimed.

"So was I," Fumio rolled her eyes at Sōma's clueless expression. "They're taking the exam, and they need all of this stuff to cook it."

"What?" Sōma looked around before noticing that the kitchen had one extra occupant that he didn't notice before because he was distracted by all of the new and shiny things that had been added to the kitchen.

"Good day, Yukihira Sōma-kun." Alice smiled at him benignly.

'Uh oh…' Sōma thought to himself.

A/N: So this chapter didn't have much to do with the manga. That'll come up soon though. The Training Camp is almost here. I'll either skip to it or have another random day with Sōma wandering the academy looking for inspiration. I'm still thinking about it.

Now in regards to the pole, the winner is… Kobayashi Rindō-senpai. I'll be honest, I was rooting for her. But with what's going on in the manga… And the side that she's on… Well, I won't give my opinion on it here where I'll spoil it. Thankfully, I do have enough to go on to give her personality some spark. And it's before the end of the Moon Banquet Festival, another good point. But yeah, it's being worked on now. The results are below, for those of you who are wondering where the ladies placed.

Alice – 5

Hisako – 3

Ikumi – 4

Kurase – 1

Nao – 1

Rindō – 8

Ryoko – 3

So no more votes will be accepted now that it's closed. Costume ideas and things you think would be interesting are welcome to be sent in. PLEASE ONLY REVIEW IN CHAPTER 8 REGARDING YOUR IDEAS FOR THIS. PMs are acceptable too, but I'll give the reviews more priority when it comes to my decision making. It's cleaner and easier for me to sort through that way too, so I'll only be looking there and counting those to see votes in the end. Though, it seems like some of you ignored this the last time. It's no big deal though. I did take a look every review anyways. Still, it's preferable to dump them into Chapter 8's review section since it's an A/N and then they won't get mixed-in among other chapter's reviews concerning chapter content opinions.

Again, reminder, please feel free to follow "stygianhazardff" on tumblr for updates/thoughts about my fan-fiction stuff.