A/N: Ok, this chapter took longer than expected, but here it is. The next part of the training camp.
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Disclaimer: I do not own Shokugeki no Sōma. And every time I read this manga, I get hungry.
"Mhmmm…" Alice stretched lazily as she leaned up against a pillar as the other students walked back into the main hall to hear the next phase. She wasn't too worried about it though. From what she had found out, it seemed like they would be making dinner for a small number of people before leaving to make their own. Luckily, she wouldn't have to worry about making her own dinner since she had Ryō around. Some loud yelling brought her attention towards the door and she turned to check on it. Her lips twitched into a smile as she caught sight of a familiar head of red hair.
Sōma walked in with his dormmates leisurely. Alice saw him yawn as he looked around curiously. He didn't notice her, instead focusing his attention on the crowd of people being led by Hitoshi Sekimori walking towards them. A few people stared in awe. Ryō glanced over before snorting and looking back down at the ground. Alice and Sōma both quirked an eyebrow at the odd looking crowd. They appeared to be mainly foreigners. They were probably body builders or athletes. Based on the dumb poses that they were making, they were most likely body builders. Alice rolled her eyes at the display.
Hitoshi started to explain the rules of the next phase. Alice decided to take this chance to walk up beside Sōma, leaving Ryō by himself. None of his friends noticed her since they were either too busy with either focusing on Hitoshi or dying a bit on the inside. Although to be honest, it was only Yūki who was looking heartbroken. Alice would have said something witty about it, but the look of utter devastation on Yūki's face stopped her. It would have felt like kicking a puppy. Instead, she focused on Sōma who at this point was smirking at the thought of the new challenge.
"This has been a pretty easy day, wouldn't you say Yukihira Sōma-kun?" Alice remarked idly from right next to him.
"Huh?" Sōma's heart sped up in surprise of seeing Alice so close without him noticing. Outwardly though, he didn't show much a reaction besides the slight widening of his eyes. It seemed like that was enough for Alice though, based on the devious expression on her face. "Oh hey, you made it too."
"Are you shocked?" Alice asked semi-seriously. She would be pretty upset if Sōma would be dumb enough to say yes to that.
"Nah, I'm pretty happy actually," Sōma said, smiling at her. "I'm glad that you're still here."
"Thank you." Alice murmured, turning away from him to hide the blush that was growing on her face.
It figured that he would say something like that without either knowing or caring about the way it could be taken. Alice couldn't tell if it was his best or his worst trait. She was going to reserve judgment for now until she figured out more about him. Her original plan was to do it after finding his file, but for some reason it wasn't where it should have been in the school archives. She was planning on looking into it after they got back to Tōtsuki. Well, only if he managed to make it through the camp.
'How annoying…' Alice thought at that reminder. 'I really hate waiting.'
Sōma stared at her, watching the expressions on her face rapidly change with each new thought she had. It was pretty amusing actually. His face broke into a grin as he continued to watch her.
No one else noticed Sōma's blatant staring except for Ryō from his spot in the back of the crowd. His eyes narrowed at Sōma before turning to check an Alice. Seeing that she didn't seem to mind or care about it, he decided to let it go. As long as he wasn't dragged into whatever was going on with them, he wouldn't care. Alice was enough of a pain as it is. It was plain to see, ever since Sōma's speech at the entrance ceremony, that he was made of the same type of mold.
"B-but Sekimori-senpai!" Yūki yelled out after Hitoshi's explanation was done, breaking Sōma and Alice out of the reverie. "What about our own dinner?"
"Hm," Hitoshi turned to regard her before answering calmly. "Once you're done with this challenge, you can make your own dinner."
"Make our own dinner…?" Yūki echoed in shock. "But what about… but what about the extravagant dinner we're supposed to get?"
"There is no such thing." Hitoshi said dispassionately.
"Huh?" Yūki stared at Hitoshi in incomprehension.
"That said, I should also mention that all of your meals during the training camp will be prepared by yourself," Hitoshi continued, heedless to Yūki's heartbreak. "One last thing, if any of you cannot finish making 50 servings within the next 60 minutes, you will be expelled then and there."
Nearly everyone froze in shock at his declaration.
"Begin!" Hitoshi yelled out immediately after.
The shock hadn't quite set in yet. But as soon as Hitoshi yelled for them to begin, everyone made a mad dash towards the kitchen to start preparing the meals. Only a few people were capable of calmly entering the kitchen. Alice and Sōma were two of them. The trailed in behind everyone else. Alice, upon seeing a counter with two free spots still, quickly grabbed Sōma and eagerly dragged him towards it.
The kitchen had gone from complete silence to a noisy mess that could only be compared to a stadium of some kind. Every student was either running to grab ingredients or cooking aggressively as fast as they could. Hitoshi stood at the front of it all, calmly looking over the students. He made note of a few above average students. Behind him, the customers waited eagerly. Some were drooling already from the smell and sight alone.
"Are you having fun yet?" Alice asked Sōma coolly from her spot next to him. She was idly making note of Sōma's cooking techniques, seeing how swiftly he was churning out his servings. It looked like it had only taken him a few tries to figure out the optimal cooking pattern. Not bad, but she had managed it faster after setting up her ingredients in the proper order.
"The time of my life," Sōma replied with a grin. He glanced over at Alice's station and was slightly surprised to see how well she was doing. Despite starting a bit after him, she was already caught up. Actually, she may be a bit ahead. "Are you having any troubles? I could help you when I'm done."
"Please," Alice scoffed jokingly. "If anyone needs help, it's you."
"We'll just have to see who finishes first then, won't we?" Sōma asked challengingly, speeding up his pace.
"It certainly looks that way." Alice said, speeding up her pace as well.
From several counters behind them, Ryō watched Alice and Sōma carefully. They appeared to be having a contest to see who would finish the fastest. Ryō wasn't too interested in that. Comparing the taste is a lot more interesting. Still though, he couldn't help but notice that Sōma was pretty fast for a nobody. They would both finish pretty soon. Ryō glanced around at the other students. It seemed as if everybody but the Italian twins seemed to be struggling with this challenge. Ryō was behind too, but that didn't matter. He would finish on time easily. There was no need to get heated over something as easy as this.
"Nakiri Alice and Yukihira Sōma, finished 50 meals." Hitoshi declared after they had both simultaneously turned in their 50th serving.
'So fast…' Yūki thought in shock as she watched the two of them leave the room together. But her attention was quickly taken away as the customers started yelling for sixths.
"Now what should we do?" Sōma asked Alice as they headed back to their rooms for the night. "I'm pretty sure that it will take them a little while longer to finish. Maybe there will be something on TV."
"True," Alice said. She was pretty unconcerned about the others. But right now, she was getting pretty bored. Suddenly, a sign caught her attention. She read it quickly before moving in front of it to cover up some words before getting Sōma's attention. "How about we do this?"
"Hm?" Sōma looked over to see what Alice was talking about. "Oh, a public bath? Yeah, that sounds like fun. Wait, we can't hang out if we go to that though."
"Oh, it's ok…" Alice waved off his concern. "It's no big deal. We can just hang out afterwards, right?"
"Right," Sōma nodded. "Well then, I'm going to head to my room to get my yukata and stuff. I'll see you later."
With that, Sōma ran off.
Alice stepped away from the sign, allowing the missing words to be shown.
MALE PUBLIC BATH IS TO THE LEFT
FEMALE PUBLIC BATH IS TO THE RIGHT
MIXED PUBLIC BATH IS STRAIGHT AHEAD
"Right," Alice laughed to herself. "I'll see you sooner than later."
Alice walked straight ahead towards the baths. She wanted to get there before Sōma. It sucked that she wouldn't have the proper attire to wear right afterwards, but she could suffer through it just this once. The important part was surprising Sōma. She walked into the changing room and looked around. All of the baskets for people's belongings were empty. That was a good sign. She grabbed a towel off of a rack before walking over towards one end to strip.
After she was done, Alice walked towards the bath and glanced around as she entered to make sure that no one else was there. It didn't look like anyone was using the mixed bath. That was good. She sighed softly as she slowly lowered herself into the water. She made sure that her towel was tied on tightly before making her way towards one of the pillars in the bath. She leaned up against it, making sure that she was out of sight from anyone walking in though the entrance.
'Now then…' Alice thought giddily. 'All that's left to do is wait.'
In all honestly, she hadn't really thought this plan through. All that mattered was that she surprise Sōma. It's not like it was that big of a deal if he saw her wearing nothing but a towel. Her face heated up as she slid further into the water until only her hair was visible. It figured that she would start regretting now that she was passed the point of no return.
A noise from the changing room made her sit up straighter. With any luck, that would be Sōma. A cheerful, if awfully out of tune, humming sound brought a smile to her lips. Only one guy could hum that awfully. She peeked from behind the pillar only to quickly go back into hiding at what she has seen.
Good news, it was Sōma. Bad news, he was naked.
'Erina was right,' Alice thought humorlessly as she grabbed her forehead in a poor attempt to cool down her blushing face. 'Yukihira Sōma really is uncouth.'
"Alright!" Sōma exclaimed as he jumped into the bath. "I'm taking the first bath."
"Sorry, but you're actually second." Alice said from her hiding spot, rolling her eyes at his enthusiasm. At least it helped distract her, even if only a little bit.
"W-what?!" Sōma yelled out in surprise. Upon seeing the familiar shock of white hair, he quickly grabbed his towel to cover himself up. "A-Alice-san? What are you doing in the men's bath?"
"This is the mixed bath, Yukihira Sōma-kun." Alice stated calmly. She hoped that Sōma would attribute the heat of the bath to causing her flushed face.
"Really?" Sōma questioned, looking back at her before quickly looking away. His mind flashed to the last time this situation had happened, with Megumi. This had several differences though. For one, there was no screaming. He was thankful for that part. "Um, I guess I should go there then."
"Why would you bother with doing that much?" Alice asked, grinning at the sight of Sōma being flustered. After knowing him for the past few weeks, she didn't think that it was possible for him to get this flustered; if at all. It was a sight she could definitely get used to. Although… She lowered herself a bit deeper into the water now that she had made her appearance to him. "We're both already in the bath, so how about we just stay and talk, hm?"
"I guess that's fine…" Sōma murmured. It really wasn't. But he didn't want to have to get up, get dressed, and go to the men's bath to repeat the process of getting in. It would be a time waster.
"Marvelous," Alice clapped her hands happily. "So what shall we talk about, Yukihira Sōma-kun?"
Sōma looked at her from the corner of his eye. There was the second difference. She wasn't throwing stuff at him. Yet another thing to be thankful for. "How much do you know about Nakiri Erina?"
"Why do you want to know?" Alice asked blankly. Her happy mood plummeted. That wasn't what she wanted to hear, especially not from him. Did he find out about her connection to Erina? Was that why he was asking her this now? There couldn't be any other reason.
"I ran into her on my way over here," Sōma explained. He stared at Alice's blank expression with a bit of worry. "She's really annoying. I accidentally bump into her, and she goes into a tirade about she can't wait to see which day I'll be kicked out on. I mean seriously, who does that?"
Alice laughed out loud at that. Out of all of the reasons she had been dreading as the reason for his question, that was definitely the furthest from any of them. She kept laughing as Sōma turned to stare at her bemusedly.
"Oh sure, you think it's funny," Sōma said jokingly. "I doubt you'd be that way if she were saying it right to your face."
"I doubt that it would come to that," Alice said, panting a bit from laughing so much. "After all, I'm a higher caliber chef than you are." She made sure to keep her tone light, just in case Sōma took her seriously. It would be a hindrance to her if he thought she was anything like her cousin.
"Is that a fact?" Sōma raised an eyebrow at her. "I haven't seen you cook for real yet though."
"That's true," Alice acknowledged. Thus far, they had really only seen each other cooking for assignments. She had been lucky to see Sōma have a Shokugeki. But besides that, there really wasn't much either of them had seen concerning the other's specialty. "We should fix that; after the training camp, of course."
"I'm game," Sōma said confidently. "Just come by the dorm whenever you're free."
"Ugh," Alice groaned at the thought. "But that's so far away."
"I make that walk every day," Sōma pointed out. It really did suck that he had to do that though. He would need to get a bike soon. "You can make it at least once."
'Or I could get my driver to take me there.' Alice thought while nodding outwardly with a glum expression.
"Heh," Sōma grinned, a look that she reciprocated. "I can't wait. This will be fun."
"Or we could work on the project," Alice said thoughtfully, recalling that it was yet another thing they would have to accomplish. "After all, that's important too."
"Nah," Sōma shook his head. "We can do that anytime. We have the whole year, right? It'll be simple."
"Sure," Alice shrugged. It wasn't something that she was concerned about either. She yawned and stretched lazily. "Ugh, I think that this heat is starting to get to me."
"Eh?" Sōma glanced over only to turn to look ahead again. There was the third difference. Chest size. He gulped and looked towards the door, which was conveniently on his other side. "Maybe we should get going then? I'm sure that the others must be done by now. I don't want to keep them waiting."
"I guess…" Alice murmured before getting up. She started to walk towards the door and slid it open before turning just in time to see Sōma's flustered face look away. She waved at him cheerfully. "No peeking, ok?"
"As if!" Sōma yelled in reply as she shut the sliding door behind her with a laugh. He groaned after she was out of sight and slid down until only his eyes were visible. And finally, the fourth difference had showed itself. Alice was a total tease. He had figured that out before, but this time really took the cake. Tomorrow, he was definitely going to be bathing in the men's only public bath.
OMAKE
"Hm…" Senzaemon hummed thoughtfully to himself as he read the letter of challenge in front of him.
In front of him, Hisanao fidgeted slightly. He didn't like how serious the director was being about this. While it was legal and all, the Shokugeki challenge between Ryō and Sōma had a really bad ending if Sōma lost. Or at least, he thought so. It was the reason why he had decided to bring it up to the director in order to see if it should be validated or not. Thus far, the director hadn't said a single word about anything that was written in the letter of challenge.
"I see…" Senzaemon murmured. He placed the letter on his desk and stamped it before handing it back to Hisanao.
"S-sir?" Hisanao questioned. "Are you sure we should be allowing this Shokugeki to take place?"
"It's interesting," Sanzaemon shrugged before slamming his hands on the table enthusiastically. "SO I SHALL ALLOW IT!"
"I should have known…" Hisanao muttered before leaving in defeat. Now he would need to go and find appropriate judges for the Shokugeki.
A/N: There we go. Part of me, a small part, wanted to make a lemon at the end there. But I held back. It was probably for the best. Maybe I'll make an OMAKE of it someday that implies it happening. We'll see how it goes.
For now, the next day has the Unofficial Shokugeki with Shinomiya Kojirō. Well, I say that. But it will really focus on Alice most likely as well as her reaction to the rumors about what happened in his class. I may have Ryō's perspective a bit more often in order to even things out.
Again, reminder, please feel free to follow "stygianhazardff" on tumblr for updates/thoughts about my fan-fiction stuff.