A/N: Here we are, at the end of the training camp. Hopefully you like how it goes. More changes with this chapter.

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.

A new day finally dawned on Tōtsuki Resort. The fourth day of the training camp. With it, most of the students made their way sluggishly towards their respective halls in order to set up and prepare the dishes that they had come up with during the long and harrowing night. The halls were all busy and noisy with the students trying to finish the prep work needed.

Some of the students were yawning, being unable to sleep at all because they had been testing dishes all the way until sunrise.

Alice wasn't one of them. In fact, she wasn't doing much at all at the moment. She was having Ryō do all of the heavy lifting to get her ingredients to where she wanted them to be while she leaned against the counter and watched bemusedly while occasionally giving out orders.

"Not there, move them like a foot to the right." Alice said, vaguely pointing in the direction.

"Yes, ojou-sama." Ryō said tiredly. He wasn't tired because he didn't get enough sleep. No, he was tired because of all of the orders Alice had given him this morning. If he had to guess, he would say that she was trying to distract herself from thinking about the stupid transfer student. He wasn't going to ask her about it though. That would just make her more irksome.

"Good," Alice checked the time after he finished. "Now go and hurry up with your own prep. You're almost out of time." She shooed him away.

"Yes, ojou-sama." Ryō cracked his back and neck wearily before walking over to his own station. He had already started boiling it before he had to help Alice in order to make sure that it was done on time. Now, all he had to do was place the finished product into the bowls before placing them out.

Alice watched Ryō from afar before nodding in satisfaction. He hadn't done much practice last night, as expected. And this morning, he had already made several changes to his dish. It seemed to be for the best. She could smell the dish from her stand, as could several other students. It smelled rich.

A new smell filled the hall, causing almost everyone to reflexively look in the direction of it.

'That's… Hayama Akira.' Alice checked over his dish. It was hard to see from this distance. She started to make her way over to his station for a better look. Part way there, a familiar face entered the hall. A pair of them actually.

It was the same two from Chapelle-sensei's class. Honestly, she was shocked that they had managed to survive this long. Watching them, she fought not to smirk as they were stationed next to her. Taking one last look at Akira's station, she turned back to head over to her station. It didn't really matter what Akira had made. It wouldn't beat her dish. More importantly, ensuring that those two would fail this task was far more significant to her.

As Alice reached her station, the two of them both stared at her in shock and muted horror. She smiled at them coldly. Now a bit more interested in finishing up the task as soon as possible, she started to prepare her dishes. It barely took any time at all for her in order to finish the prep work. What made her dishes so interesting wasn't the elaborate design, but the elaborate thought that went into it. Smiling softly to herself, she gazed down at her work proudly.

'This is perfect,' Alice thought smugly. 'If only Erina and Yukihira Sōma-kun were here to see it.'

The thought, instead of firing her up actually brought her down instead. For a number of reasons. Erina wasn't the same girl she had known back when she was a kid living at the Nakiri Mansion. And with Sōma… Well, he probably wouldn't pass this test. She figured that he would be lucky to even manage to serve eight plates of that soufflé dish of his.

"Are all of you prepared to present your dishes?" Gin's voice sounded from the speakers, cutting Alice off from her musing. "I'm now going to explain the conditions to pass this test."

Alice barely listened to Gin's voice in favor of looking around at the others in the hall. Nearly everyone appeared to be nervous. Those that weren't nervous looked either bored or confidant in the coming task. It was fairly certain that they would be able to pass, like her, without much trouble. It was only a question of when, and she planned to be the first.

As Gin was speaking, the doors opened and a crowd of people made their way into the hall. Alice eyed them curiously. She recognized a few people who had come to the mansion. None really stood out that much to her. The ones she did remember were more interesting in Erina than her.

On the other side of the hall, the staff from the cooking and service divisions of Tōtsuki Resort came into the hall. This was a bit harsher, but still not too bad. One who stood out was the Sous Chef, Sena Hiromi. It would be interesting to see what he liked in the hall. While the staff may be a bit more selective than the random judges, they would likely finish quick and make their way to the other halls.

"From now, you will all have to serve 200 dishes within two hours." Gin announced, causing a ripple of discontent to flow among the students.

'Hmmm…' Alice eyed her ingredients. She would have enough for that amount and quite a bit more.

"Well then… Breakfast is served," Gin said, grinning at the students. "Please enjoy."

With that, the judges started to walk towards the stations. Students that had the judges walk by without even a glance looked on in dismay. It was obvious that it was going to happen. Dishes with no impact weren't even worth looking at, let alone tasting. No one came over to Alice's station, not that she minded. She would likely not be busy for the first hour, at most. It would take that long for the rumors of her dish to spread throughout the hall. Once it did, she would be all set. And more importantly, it would take away potential customers from the other students. Even better.

The shout from an excited child brought Alice's attention to the other end of the hall. Several boys and a couple of staff members were apparently quite intrigued by a dish over there. Alice narrowed her eyes as she saw just whose dish they were captivated by. Ikumi Mito. Alice took a quick glance around and, at seeing that there weren't any judges near her station, decided to walk over to Ikumi's station for a better look.

"This has such a high degree of perfection!" Sena exclaimed.

"Oh?" Alice had come by just in time to hear Sena rave about the dish. It seemed Mito had improved her cooking skills after her loss to Sōma. At least a little bit, by the looks of it.

Alice watched Mito closely while she was preparing her next tray of dishes. She supposed Mito was quite exotic, which explained why a lot of men were stopping by her. What with her short, bright blonde hair and tanned skin. The real killer was the bikini she wore though. It didn't make sense to Alice, how Mito figured a bikini top and short fringed shorts could be considered and used as proper cooking attire. Alice pursed her lips as she continued watching Mito work. Eventually, she was leaning over the counter to get a better look.

Once Mito was done with the next batch of dishes she turned around to place them on the counter only to see dark red eyes boring into her.

"What?!" Mito jumped back in shock. "Yo-you're…!"

"Hmmm…" Alice cocked her head and looked at Mito. "Aren't you Erina's underling? I haven't seen you around her lately though. Did she kick you to the curb or something?" Alice already knew that Erina had, she just wanted to see Mito's reaction.

Mito didn't disappoint.

"Sh-shut up!" Mito grinded her teeth at the pompous girl in front of her. It figured that a girl like this was related to Erina. She pounded the counter angrily. "Say one more word, and you're freaking regret it!"

"Aw, so mean," Alice sighed. Her eyes narrowed a bit as she suddenly remembered something. While she may not have seen Mito around Erina, she had seen her around someone else. "Before I go… How're things going with Yukihira Sōma-kun?"

"W-w-what?" Mito stammered out. She glared at Alice, trying in vain to hide her growing blush. "Why are you asking me that?!"

"Oh, no reason," Alice waved her had dismissively at the irate Mito. "Well, I should get back to my station. Bye bye~!"

With that said, Alice turned and quickly skipped back towards her station. As she headed back, several people by Mito's station and the ones she past turned and looked at her. Whether it was because of her looks or charm, it was hard to say. But their eyes did follow her as she headed back to her station. A few made a mental note to check it out once they were on that side.

Alice had to fight not to cackle triumphantly. Her 'Three Forms of Egg Dishes' were as huge a hit as she had expected them to be. It took a shorter amount of time than she had expected for word to spread throughout the halls about her dish. By now, there was a huge crowd in front of her station. People were even pushing each other in order to get a plate. The other student's stations were all practically bare in comparison.

Eventually, unfortunately, she ran out of ingredients. It wasn't all bad though. She had managed to serve 380 dishes. Far more than anyone in this hall. Loud groaning filled the hall as those who had come to have her dish realized she was done.

"Oh my…" Alice stared down at the empty containers mock shock. "I'm all out of ingredients… I never would have guessed that the guests would have eaten so much of my food."

"Hm…" Hitoshi glanced at Alice's area before nodding and marking something in his notebook. "Very well, you can end things like this."

"Thank you very much, Sekimori-senpai!" Alice chimed before leaving her station.

Glancing around, Alice noted several students already had their heads down in despair. It was their own bad luck, for being in the same hall as her. From what she could tell, Ryō and Akira were the only ones who had already hit 200 dishes, like her. Mito was the next likely to, although she appeared to be stuck at 150 dishes. Alice threw a quick smirk in Mito's direction when she turned to glare at her. That said, the students who were directly next to her suffered the worst. Both of them had served no more than five dishes. They just couldn't stand out at all, especially when being next to her. Alice patter her own back inwardly. That was two more annoyances gone now. No one could possibly serve up to 200 dishes under 40 minutes.

"See you later~!" Alice sang out, smiling widely at Mito as she walked past her station.

Mito glared at Alice's back angrily as she left the hall.

'It looks like I have some free time now,' Alice thought, walking through the halls slowly as she pondered about what she could do next. 'Maybe I should go and check up on Erina. Hm… I wonder how Yukihira Sōma-kun is doing,'

That thought spurned her to walk a bit quicker towards Hall A.

After entering the hall, Alice looked around the hall for Sōma. It didn't take long to spot him. It was easy, considering his hair color. That, and there was no one obstructing her view of him. She bit her lip thoughtfully as she saw Sōma looking down at his station in defeat. Looking past him, she saw that Erina was right next to him. Another nail in his coffin. Thanks to Erina, no one would even look at Sōma's station. Not that it would matter, since he made a poor choice of dish to present for the challenge.

Sōma started to move, getting Alice to focus on him again. It looked like he was making the same thing again. There was no difference in his actions. Alice wanted to go over and yell at him, but she held back. Maybe he had a plan.

Fortunately, it looked like he did. Sōma waved over a girl who was in the crowd surround Erina's dish. Then, he flipped the egg on the pan up in the air really high before catching it in a plate. He finished preparing it before placing it on the counter for the girl to pick up.

Alice's eyes narrowed as she wondering what Sōma was thinking. Slowly and steadily working up to 200 plates wouldn't work, not this late in the challenge. Then, she noticed some other staff members walking by looked over as the girl gushed about the dish. After them, a few more took notice.

As soon as a semi-decent crowd was around, Sōma reached back and pulled out four more portable stoves much to the surprise of Alice and Erina. He quickly started making the dishes, upping the pace with every batch. It was quite amazing, although still a seemingly wasted effort. But… He kept going faster. Not only that, but the crowd kept getting bigger too. People were even leaving Erina's station in order to try his. A fact that Alice took no small amount of glee in.

'Live cooking, huh?' Alice gazed at Sōma. It was an interesting idea. Honestly, it might just work. But still, to put that much effort into such a simple task was such a waste. At least he wasn't making it boring.

The final five minutes came. As time ran out, more and more of Sōma's dishes were being eaten.

"Wow." Alice stared. It wasn't because of the dish would earn Sōma a pass for the challenge. Nor was it because he had managed to still customers from Erina. The skills he was showing, while substanstial, wasn't that impressive. It wasn't even that he was going to pass because she had a feeling that he wouldn't have failed despite his bad choice. No, the thing that enraptured her currently was his smile. He was smiling despite the critical situation he was in. She doubted even she would be capable of doing something like that.

"Yukihira Sōma," Gin's voice called out over the speakers. "200 meals completed!"

As soon as Gin uttered those words, the buzzer sounded to signify the end of the challenge. Alongside it came the sound of cheers and cries from the students.

Alice blinked, snapping out of her thoughts before sighing softly in relief at the sight of Sōma's triumph.

"Pheeeeeeew…" Sōma took off his headband and leaned against the counter. After a second, he looked over to the irritated Erina and smirked a bit before giving her a thumbs up.

"Wh-?!" Erina started to shout out before getting pushed aside by Alice.

"Now that was impressive!" Alice exclaimed, making her way in-between Erina and Sōma. "I thought you would get stuck at like eight meals."

"Alice-san?" Sōma blinked at Alice owlishly.

"But it looks like you managed to get barely get by with your skills." Alice finished, gazing at Sōma coolly.

"Hm?" Sōma quirked an eyebrow at her. "I passed, didn't I?"

"Only because of that stunt you pulled off," Alice pointed out. "Do you really think you can reach the top with that? It's not even close to being enough. That's almost the same as relying on luck. You need to know more, do more. Using cutting-edge theories is the best way to get to the top. Like my cooking, if you need an example."

"Yours?" Sōma questioned.

"What are you doing here, Alice?" Erina asked, irked that she was being ignored by both the commoner and even her own cousin.

"Hm?" Alice glanced at Erina before looking back at Sōma. "I just came to check up on things, cousin. That's all."

"Cousin?" Sōma looked back and forth between the two. Thinking about it, they did look and seem quite similar.

"Yes," Alice shrugged and pointed at herself self-importantly. "My name is Nakiri Alice. And I'm the one who is going to take the top seat. Remember that."

"You're a Nakiri?" Sōma asked, double-checking if he had heard right.

"That's right," Alice watched Sōma's reaction carefully. "Erina and I lived together in the same mansion until we were five." Now that brought back some memories. Some bad memories.

"Huh," Sōma's expression didn't change. "You know, that actually explains a lot."

"Like what?!" Alice and Erina both shouted at the same time.

Fortunately, Sōma was saved from having to answer that by the timely arrival of Ryō.

"Ojou-sama." Ryō said, walking up to all of them. Part of him didn't want to, but the other part of him didn't want Sōma to say something stupid and making Alice take out her anger on himself.

"You sure found me fast," Alice remarked. "Good work, Ryō-kun."

"It was nothing." Ryō said mildly. It really wasn't. Both Erina and Sōma were in Hall A. Where else would Alice have gone? The answer is nowhere.

"Well, you have perfect timing. Now, explain it." Alice ordered.

"What?" Ryō stared at Alice cluelessly. Despite knowing her for years, he still couldn't understand her.

"My history," Alice rolled her eyes. "Tell him about my past."

"Oh…" Ryō looked down in thought a bit before answering. "Well, ojou-sama and Erina-sama are cousins, an-"

"I already said that!" Alice complained, cutting Ryō off. "Never mind, I'll tell him myself."

Alice then listed off her past, and her ideals to Sōma. She watched Sōma carefully as she talked, checking if he was viewing her differently or something. The only time his expression changed was when she mentioned that she would get to the top with only molecular gastronomy.

"And now that I'm here, I'm going to stand on top of Tōtsuki and defeat Erina with what I've learned in Denmark." Alice proclaimed proudly.

"Hmph," Erina scoffed after Alice finished talking. "My cooking will never lose to a chef that only uses new techniques."

"I see you haven't changed at all!" Alice said, stepping up to Erina angrily. "Even when we were kids, you were like this. When we were three, you took my toy. When we were four, you said that the cake I baked for your birthday tasted disgusting. And then, worst of all, when we were five…"

"Enough!" Erina shouted, half embarrassed and half angry. "That has nothing to do with this!"

"Regardless…" Alice turned, making sure to now show Erina how hurt she was about that. Turning back to Sōma, she smirked and stared at him. "Then there's you… Yukihira Sōma-kun. You made quite the statement during the entrance ceremony. But from what I've seen, you won't be able to take to top. You don't have what it takes. I mean, you barely managed to finish this assignment."

"Yeah, that was kind of sad," Sōma laughed sheepishly. "I panicked near the end there. It was a huge failure."

Alice blinked, looking at Sōma in a new light. That wasn't the response she had been expecting from him.

"But now I've learned and gotten experience from this failure," Sōma explained, smiling at Alice. "It won't happen again."

"Hmm…" Alice stared at Sōma critically before nodding thoughtfully. "You really are something else, Yukihira Sōma-kun. Nevertheless, I won't be losing to either of you. I can't wait to fight you."

"Interesting," Sōma stared back at Alice. He hadn't expected her to want to have a Shokugeki with him. But he was up to it if she was. "I'll gladly be your opponent."

"It'll happen sooner than you think," Alice smirked. "This Autumn should be fun. Try to survive until then."

"Autumn?" Sōma asked in confusion.

Alice didn't answer. Instead, she laughed and waved at Sōma before leaving with Ryō.

Erina glanced between the two of them in confusion. For some reason, she really didn't like the two of them being chummy with each other. It would explain a bit as to why Alice had watched Sōma's Shokugeki with her. But to think that Alice thought Sōma had what it takes to take part in the Autumn Election. That was overselling him. There was no way that Sōma would be selected for such an event. Not on her watch, at least.

Erina was about to ask him about how he knew Erina, but the timely appearance of Megumi and Takumi dissuaded her. She listened to them berate him while keeping an eye on Alice. They didn't mention anything about Alice. It looked like she would have to question Alice herself later.

"This is a message for those of you who have completed serving 200 meals within the allotted time," Gin's voice boomed over the speaker. "The next assignment is in four hours. You all have free time until then."

The next sound that was heard was the stomping of feet as the students ran out of the hall to prepare for the rest of the last day at the training camp.

"What a fun day," Alice said, stretching a bit as she entered the lobby. "Wouldn't you agree, Ryō-kun?"

"I suppose so, ojou-sama." Ryō nodded slowly. The morning challenge had been the only interesting thing to happen during this trip, in his opinion. At least it was a bit more exciting than the academy had been thus far.

As usual, most of the other students looked tired. There were notabily less than there were after the 200 dish challenge. It was disheartening to see for some people. Not for Alice though. She looked through the crowd, trying to find the one chef who she was sure must be there somewhere. Sure enough, eventually she found Sōma standing around his friends near the middle. She sighed in relief.

The crowd of students suddenly fell silent at the sight of Gin's imposing form entering the hall. A few of the senseis followed behind him and stood by the door.

"Before we get the finale started, I have a few words to say to you all." Gin said, solemnly looking at the surrounding students.

Alice tuned him out, not really interested in this part of the program. The training camp was now over. All that was left was the final banquet before leaving tomorrow. And then once they were back at Tōtsuki, Sōma and she could finally get started on their project. It really would be an annoying thing. The only plus side, if it could be called that, would be that they had summer break to work on it. If there was one thing to be thankful to Malfroid-sensei for, it was for giving her an excuse to be around Sōma a lot.

"Ojou-sama?" Ryō whispered.

"Huh?" Alice turned to stare at Ryō.

"It looks like we're getting ready for the end." Ryō said, nodding towards Gin.

Alice looked over. It looked as though Ryō was right. Just as Gin announced the start of the final program, the students erupted into a mass of despair. Ryō snorted at the sight of how weak everyone looked. Alice playfully elbowed him and shook her head.

The banquet hall does unexpectedly opened, bringing everyone attention to the people coming out of it. The Tōtsuki Resort staff flowed out and formed a line on each side of the door.

"Welcome!" A few of the staff members nearest to the door called out.

"What?"

"T-this?"

"Seriously?"

Alice started walking towards the door calmly.

"To the 628 students who have survived up to this point…" Gin said, surprisingly gently. "Congratulations on clearing this phase of your year at Tōtsuki."

Some of the students looked at Gin with incomprehension.

"The last assignment is to celebrate the end of the training camp a modest banquet," Gin said, smiling as he gestured to the emerging alumni. "Please go and be seated. Now, we're going to have you all taste a full course made by your alumni!"

Everyone started to cheer wildly.

"I can't believe it!"

"What a time to be alive!"

"I think I can die happy now…"

"Ah, now this is service." Alice said, sighing in satisfaction as the smell wafting off of the dishes seemed to fill her up. She found an empty table and sat down. "Wouldn't you agree, Ryō-kun?"

"Yeah." Ryō said, eyeing the dishes critically. He'd never seen food this well prepared outside of the Nakiri Mansion. A swift kick from Alice reminded him of just what was going on and he sat down complacently next to her.

"So congrats, Nakiri." Sōma said. He walked up towards them casually and took the seat directly next to Alice.

"Nakiri?" Alice turned and pouted angrily at Sōma. "Really, Yukihira Sōma-kun?"

Alice was about to ask what he was doing here. But looking past him, she saw that the table with his friends was totally full. Moreover, they were looking over at Sōma in shock. She looked back at Sōma to hear his response.

"Don't like it?" Sōma laughed and scratched the back of his head. "I guess just Alice will do."

"Just Alice?" Alice asked. He wasn't even going to add anything to the end? Erina would have killed him if she were in Alice's position.

"Well, it's a bit weird calling you Nakiri since that's what I call Nakiri Erina," Sōma explained simply. "That said, you don't always have to use my full name when you're talking to me."

"Mhm…" Alice took a sip of her drink.

"Oh," Sōma looked past Alice. "Congrats to you too, Kurokiba."

"Same." Ryō said. He looked at Alice inquisitively and opened his mouth to say something before thinking better of it. Grabbing a fork, he decided to just enjoy the food.

"So any thoughts?" Alice asked Sōma.

"On the food?" Sōma asked, holding a piece of meat on his fork up as an example. "It's delicious!"

"Not that," Alice said, giggling a bit at his obliviousness. "I meant on the whole Nakiri thing."

"Oh, that..." Sōma's eyes widened at the reminder. "Yeah, I was really surprised. I can't believe that you're related to Nakiri Erina."

"Yes," Alice nodded dejectedly. "A lot of people say that." And then they ask her how Erina is doing or if she could introduce them to Erina.

"So are you going to start eating?" Sōma asked after finishing his current plate.

"Huh?" Alice looked at Sōma with a bemused expression on her face.

"The food," Sōma said, pointing helpfully at the plate in front of her. "You've only had like one bite."

"Oh, right." Alice grabbed her fork and knife and cut off a piece. Placing it in her mouth, she chewed it slowly, enjoying the flavor explosion in her mouth. It could have been just her, but for some reason, the second bite was a lot tastier than the first bite. She wondered why.

"Isn't it great, Alice?" Sōma asked, grinning at her.

"Yes," Alice nodded happily. "It really is."

OMAKE

The stadium was completely silent. Students and staff members alike were looking down at the judges in shock. Never before, in the entirety of the history of Tōtsuki, had something like this ever happened. No one knew how to react. No one knew what to do.

Ryō and Sōma both looked at each other, completely nonplussed by the situation.

After eating Ryō's and Sōma's dishes, the judges all lost consciousness. Well, hopefully it was just their consciousness that they last and not anything worse.

"U-um…" Urara looked at the judges worriedly. Walking up, she poked each of them. Then she checked their pulse. "Well… It seems like they are all alive."

The audience breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"But we might want to call an ambulance," Urara said helpfully. She looked at the unfinished dishes next to the unconscious judges. "And maybe poison control."

"So what now?" Sōma asked Ryō as everyone else started moving, trying to help out however they could.

"Beats me," Ryō shrugged. "Call it a wash?"

"Or we could eat our own dishes and judge it ourselves." Sōma countered.

They both looked at their dishes and winced.

"Nah." They both said simultaneously.

A/N: Ok, well the training camp is finally done. The next chapter should have the ride home and the welcome back banquet at the Polar Star Dormitory. Alice will be there for both, obviously. More romance stuff won't really happen until the summer unless an idea strikes me.

The OMAKE was annoying to think of. In the end, I couldn't pick a winner between those two. So yeah, a tie happened (sort of).

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