A/N: Part of me wants to just have them say that they like each other and just end it there. But nope, it has to be built up. Slow and steady, right?
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Disclaimer: I do not own Shokugeki no Sōma. And every time I read this manga, I get hungry.
"It's been a long time since we've been here, neh, Ryō-kun?" Alice asked her aide as they walked into Tōtsuki Resort. They milled around the crowd for a bit until it was time for the opening announcement. Sōma had left as soon as they had parked in order to go and find his friends, much to Alice's displeasure.
"Ah," Ryō grunted noncommittally. He really wasn't in the mood to converse while he was forced to carry both his and Alice's luggage by himself. Complaining out loud wouldn't help at all. "A few years, I think. Will we be in the penthouse as per usual then, ojou-sama?"
"Regrettably we cannot," Alice sighed. She had been looking forward to it. But her grandfather had forbid her to do so. She needed to get the whole student experience while she could, was what he had said. It was unclear what exactly he had meant by that, but Alice wasn't too broken up about it. It meant that she could get a room closer to Sōma's, which was enough to curve her dissatisfaction over the situation. "We'll be fine though. I set it up so that we'll get a good view and be close to the hot springs and kitchens. That way, it'll take us less time to get back between events."
"That works." Ryō nodded along as Alice prattled on. He wouldn't have cared either way. But as long as Alice wasn't making it more difficult, he wouldn't say anything about her bending the rules.
Once they were in the great banquet hall, Alice led them both over to the far wall. Ryō, knowing Alice was watching him closely, carefully put down all of their luggage. Once he was done, he rolled his shoulders and sighed before slowly taking a seat next to them. A few students looked their way, confused about the enormous amount that they had brought for five day trip. Almost all of it was of course Alice's. All of the students who stared too long quickly looked away after meeting Ryō's eyes though. Even without his bandana on, his gaze could be unnerving.
The rest of the students started to flow into the great banquet hall. Most of them had been taking in the sight of Tōtsuki Resort. Alice supposed she couldn't really blame them. It was certainly one of the nicer resorts the academy owned. She watched the faces trying to see if she could find Sōma or Erina. Ryō occasionally would glance over and check on her expression before looking back down at the ground.
After a while, near the end, Erina and Hisako finally entered. Alice watched them with veiled interest. They appeared to be talking heatedly about something. Erina appeared to be pouting. Alice would bet that she was either thinking about how annoying this whole thing was, or Sōma. The smart money would be on Sōma, since he wasn't in yet. Sure enough, as soon as she had thought that, Sōma came in. Alice snorted delicately at the look on Erina's face once she noticed him. Sōma didn't appear to be paying anyone any mind. He was focused on looking at the interior of the resort with a shocked look on his face.
"It's almost time, ojou-sama," Ryō muttered suddenly, gaining Alice's attention. He stood back up and took a few steps forward. "We're going to have to stand in formation soon. Are you ready?"
"Yeah," Alice shrugged. She had heard the speech before from other students. It was pretty obvious stuff. She would rather go right to the cooking, but she knew that they needed to get the formalities out of the way first. There was tradition to keep up with and whatnot. "Leave the luggage here for now, you can take it up later."
Ryō growled inwardly and the obvious and expected exclusion of herself in the sentence. His eyes darted to the side of the stage, noting that quite a few people were standing right out of sight. Chappelle-sensei was easily recognizable in the front and was checking his watch. A noise, extremely loud in this big and silent hall, brought his attention back to the group that Sōma had come in with. Although now they had a newcomer in their group, the meat master, Mito Ikumi. Nearby students were staring at their group, or to be more accurate, they were glaring at Sōma.
It was obvious that even while at this training camp, Sōma would have people gunning for him. Ryō couldn't care less about any of that though. Anyone who would aim for petty revenge instead of focusing on their own survival would definitely fail here. Stuff like that should always be left to a Shokugeki. Well, it was doubtful that a Shokugeki would happen here. No one would be that stupid.
Finally, Chappelle-sensei started to walk towards the center stage. All at once, the near silent whispering that had been filling the hall disappeared as student rushed to stand at attention. Alice and Ryō quickly moved in spots by the edge.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen…" Chappelle-sensei started to say. From beyond the curtains, several of the alumni smirked, remembering this nostalgic speech. Gin, on the other hand, stood near the front in order to take a peek and see some of the students. None of the students noticed the alumni standing just out of sight near the side of the stage.
As Chappelle-sensei kept talking, Ryō started to slowly zone out. Beside him, Alice hummed thoughtfully while keeping a close eye on Ikumi.
'She sure is standing awfully close to Yukihira Sōma…' Alice thought, feeling a tad bit annoyed over that fact.
Neither of them paid any attention to what Chappelle-sensei or Gin-senpai said during the welcoming announcement. It wouldn't have mattered anyways though. They both knew this training camp from Hell would be nothing but a cakewalk for the two of them.
"So now we just have to survive, right?" Alice said with a bored tone of voice as she and Ryō started walking towards the location of their first assignment after Chappelle-sensei allowed them to leave.
"Pretty much, ojou-sama." Ryō yawned. After barely listening to the boring speech, he felt like taking a nap out of boredom. That would have to wait though. For now, they were a bit rushed to get to the next location at time. Luckily, they weren't one of the others who would be going to a far spot in the resort to take their assignment. On the downside, for him at least, this assignment would require them to work in the usual pairs. Which meant, of course, that he would have to be stuck with Alice again.
"Well then, that's easy enough," Alice smirked. She had thought that it would be at least a bit of a challenge. This would be child's play though. "Ah, it looks like we're here."
As soon as she and Ryō entered the room, all eyes immediately turned towards them and hushed whispering started to fill the room. Alice ignored it all with a small smirk and walked briskly to a spot in the back with Ryō following closely behind her. She was more than used to this behavior from others. She was proud to say that it barely affected her now. She could make out some words here and there.
"So we're in the same group as her?"
"I bet she'll pass without even trying..."
"Why do we get stuck with a Nakiri?"
"She must be good since she's Erina-sama's cousin."
Alice's smirk faded a bit at the last comment.
Ryō's eyes narrowed at the student who had said the last comment, causing her to flush and turn around swiftly to avoid the look in his eyes.
The whispering stopped suddenly, but not because of the glare that Ryō was now wearing. In front of the class, one of the alumni had just walked in. The 79th generation's 2nd Seat as well as Ristorante F's owner and Head Chef, Mizuhara Fuyumi, an expert on Italian cooking. She gazed at all of them with an uninterested look before sitting down on top of the bench in the front of the room. She brought her legs up and rested her chin on her knees while her lips moved silently.
'What's she doing?' Alice raised an eyebrow at the odd action. It wasn't that odd though. Having lived at Tōtsuki in her early life, she had seen and heard of the odd behaviors of many of the previous Elite 10. Why, it was practically a prerequisite to be odd and/or quirky to become a member. Still though, she wondered what was going on in Fuyumi's head.
"You're all going to make an Italian cuisine main dish," Fuyumi explained while pointing out of the window. "Use the ingredients you find out there to make it. There's a fence out there that you're not allowed to pass, neither can you take ingredients that are past it. There are also seasonings, oil, and cookware in this room that you're free to use. Oh, and there's a shed out back with tools that can help you. You have two hours to make me a dish that will allow you to pass. Go."
There was a beat of silence before pandemonium set in.
"EH?!"
"ITALIAN CUISINE? HERE?"
"RUN!"
Alice watched the others panic with an amused expression on her face while she twirled her bang between her fingers thoughtfully. This wasn't that bad of an assignment. It was certainly inventive. Making an Italian style dish with ingredients found in a Japanese resort? Difficult, but nowhere near impossible. She eyed the cabinets to the side before glancing at Ryō. "I have an idea. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yes, ojou-sama," Ryō said with a small smirk. His gaze was fixated on the river out of the window. "You prep the station while I'll go and catch us some lunch."
"Perfect," Alice practically skipped over to the condiment as Ryō leisurely walked outside. There was no reason to rush. They both knew what they were going to make and how to make it. Besides, it wasn't a competition. It would be better to make things carefully, in case Fuyumi is a picky eater.
Fuyumi eyed the two of them with a little bit of interest. Out of all of the students, only Alice and Ryō didn't panic and rush out. That was usually a good sign. Given the fact that one was a Nakiri and the other was the Nakiri's aide, it would be a good bet that they'd pass this easily. She half wondered what they would make. The other half of her wondered if she would be lucky enough to not have to meet up with Kojirō during the rest of her stay here.
OMAKE
"Erina-sama!" Hisako yelled out as she burst into Erina's office. She was panting hard and her frantically darted around before they rested on a surprised looking Erina. "Erina-sama! I have big news!"
"What?" Erina eyed her trusted aide in confusion. In all the time that she had known Hisako, she had never known her to be so frantic about anything. "What's wrong, Hisako?"
"It's Yukihira Sōma!" Hisako announced. She winced and took a step back at Erina's aggravated expression.
"What has he done now?" Erina grounded out.
"U-um…" Hisako stuttered. "H-he's going to have a Shokugeki with K-Kurokiba-kun, Erina-sama."
"Oh?" Erina leaned back in her seat with a bored expression on her face. "I fail to see how this concerns me. Will he be expelled if he loses?"
"N-no…" Hisako hesitated. She wasn't sure how to best explain the conditions of the Shokugeki to her friend. Taking out the photocopy of the paper with the Shokugeki challenge and conditions, she decided to just read the consequence if Sōma lost. "If Yukihira-kun loses… According to this, he will become Alice-san's slave…?" Hisako trailed off uncertainly once she got to the end. At hearing a pen fall to the ground, she looked back up and was met by Erina's frozen red face.
"W-WHAT?!" Erina schreech, as unbidden thoughts surfaced in her mind pertaining to a recent manga she had read. She had only seen one page before Hisako had ripped the manga out of her hands and threw it out of the window. But the damage had been done and now that image forever haunted her dreams. Moreover, now, the faces of the hero and heroine were slowly being replaced by Sōma's and Alice's. Her face felt like it was about to burst into flames. "T-THAT'S SO SHAMELESS!"
A/N: So, I was thinking about it… And quite a few of you liked the idea of it… So during the training camp, the OMAKES will all be relating to Ryō's and Sōma's Shokugeki. I hope you liked it.
The next chapter will have… Let's see… The 50 dish challenge and the hot springs ;).
Again, reminder, please feel free to follow "stygianhazardff" on tumblr for updates/thoughts about my fan-fiction stuff.