The Gourmet Research Society of Gehenna is a school club whose purpose is to experience the rich and diverse landscape of high quality food. Its official motto is, "Eat or die," a statement that is technically true for all living beings. But for the members of the Gourmet Research Society, it has a deeper spiritual meaning. Taking away their food is akin to taking away their soul. Without food, specifically luxury food and the associated experiences, they would be nothing. After all, gourmet is literally in their name.
After the incident at Millennium, the prestigious school suddenly halted all exports to the rest of the city, choosing instead to hoard its treasures like a dragon. This had the consequence of a slow and gradual breakdown of high-end equipment all over the city, as the high-tech machinery and circuitry within the equipment required maintenance. No maintenance could be done, as both the parts required were only manufactured in Millennium and the engineers in the rest of the city were simply not able to efficiently repair problems without making things worse.
This slow breakdown eventually made its way to kitchenware. Now a good chef is able to work with primitive methods and machinery. Alas, good chefs, Kivotos students tend not to be. A minor disruption such as being forced to use inaccurate furnaces instead of electric ovens rendered many restaurants unable to cook almost overnight.
Needless to say, the Gourmet Research Society took note and were very displeased about this development, to say the least.
The other schools and even the General Student Council might have strongly voiced their displeasure at Millennium for their actions, but none of them bothered to take action against the school. The Gourmet Research Society, on the other hand, was always a bit more proactive than that.
One day, the four members took up arms and went to Millennium for the sole purpose of kidnapping an engineer to fix all the cooking equipment in Gehenna.
Sneaking into the district was easy for the group, who was already well acquainted with the use of simple distraction devices such as C4 and an armory of missiles and a rocket launcher. The border guards simply were not equipped to deal with such brazen intruders.
Once inside the district, they wandered around for a bit, unable to find an unfortunate victim to kidnap. Eventually, a shady member of Millennium's student council, with some assistance, managed to subdue the Gourmet Research Society, but they were eventually released back to Gehenna when she decided they were harmless in the long run.
The full details of this encounter is a story for another day.
Trinity Outskirts
Haruna looked at the map on her phone and noticed they were at their destination, a large cafe with a line stretching out the door. A wooden sign above the door displayed the name, Our Dame, in a classy cursive font. Three girls in Millennium uniforms were waiting in the line. One of them, a girl with long straight white hair and striking purple eyes, waved over to the arrivals.
Haruna pointed at the cafe. "That's it. Noa's here too," she said to the three other members of the Gourmet Research Society.
Akari clamped her hands together in joy. "Oh boy! I can't wait! Let's hurry."
The four Gehenna students hurried over to join the Millennium students in line, earning VERY disgruntled chatter from the Trinity students behind them.
One of them even appeared to try to raise her fists, clearly angered by such unhygienic line etiquette. One of her friends quickly grabbed her wrists, stopping her in her tracks, saying, "Hey! Don't make a scene again!"
"Tch," she responded.
Trinity students aside, the meeting between the Gehenna and Millennium students were also joined by three camera drones hovering above the group. When the Millennium students came in, everyone else in the building thought it odd, but the lab coat aesthetic of their Millennium uniforms explained away any questions the average student would have had, minus the whole Millennium students being outside their district thing. Noa mentally refreshed herself on the drones' presence, then greeted the Gehenna students. "Hi! It's good to see you all again!"
One of the other Millennium girls with Noa, a girl with a silver ponytail and RDB in her offhand, was perplexed by this development. "Wait, who are these people?"
The third Millennium girl, who had short blond hair and glasses, said, "They're that club from Gehenna that broke into Millennium last week."
"Oh," the second girl responded. "Well, why are they here?"
Noa snuck a glance at one of the camera drones hovering above them. She then closed her eyes and smiled. "Oh, I just wanted to invite my new friends on our outing! It's not often we get the chance to leave Millennium, so I wanted to make the most of it."
Haruna bowed to the Millennium students. "I'm truly honored that you'd invite us of all people on an outing." Turning to the two people she didn't recognize, she said, "And where are my manners? I'm Haruna, president of the Gourmet Research Society and a connoisseur of the art of fine dining. I do hope we get along."
The Millennium girl with the ponytail said under her breath, "Sheesh, stuffy. No wonder you get along with Noa."
The rest of the Gourmet Research Society also introduced themselves to the Millennium students.
Akari stepped forward and said, "I'm Akari. I love food. I've been to almost every restaurant in the city, so if you need any recommendations, just call me!"
Izumi was up next. "Hi! You can call me Izumi. I also love food!"
Last up was Junko. "I'm Junko," she said.
A few seconds passed with nobody saying anything, almost as if everyone was expecting her to elaborate a little.
Junko noticed all the eyes staring at her and just asked, "What?"
The girl with the ponytail broke the group's silence and said, "Nothing," in response. She continued by introducing herself. "I'm Hare, by the way."
The girl in glasses next to her saluted the group of Gehenna students. "Kotama! Pleasure to meet you!"
Noa finally properly introduced herself to the group. "And as you all know, I'm Noa. I hope we all get along!"
The group continued chatting loudly in the long line leading to the dessert counter.
The Trinity students behind them grew more agitated by the conversation they overheard.
"What the fuck?" the feisty one who almost threw hands before said. "They don't even know each other and they're cutting."
"Stay calm!" one of her friends told her. She huffed and repeated the phrase to herself, quieter this time. "Stay calm, dammit. We don't want a repeat of last time."
"Yeah, yeah. I know," she responded.
A third girl from Trinity tried diffusing the situation. "We can wait a few more seconds before it's our turn. It's not life or death or anything."
"You kidding?" Trinity girl #2 said. "The way Natsu acts, it might as well be life or death for her."
"Her problem, not ours," the first girl from Trinity said.
With that, the three students from Trinity kept bickering and complaining over the long line ahead of them.
Noa also took this time to look ahead and count the number of people in line. After finishing, she grinned, satisfied with the result.
"That's right! There isn't just one type of sugar. They each have different chemical properties that interact with the taste buds in different ways!"
"Ah! So that explains the difference between natural sugar and the concentrated sweet taste in desserts."
"Bringing it all back together, the maillard reaction is what happens when you apply excessive heat to proteins and sugars, which results in a dish that's way better than the sum of its parts. But it has to be EXCESSIVE."
"I'll take it boiling water isn't hot enough?"
"No. The boiling point of water isn't hot enough for that. Sure, it's hot for you and me, but in chemistry terms, it's not hot enough to trigger the reaction. Same reason why you can't cook a steak in a microwave. It's not because the heating method employed by microwaves is inherently less delicious, but it relies on heating up water, which effectively maxes it out at 100 degrees celsius."
"So, like, explosion-level heat will cook it though!"
"Mmmm. All this talk of heat is making me crave some Texan barbecue!"
"Agreed, this is all quite fascinating stuff. As gourmet researchers, I think it might be in our best interests long term to study up on food science, right?"
"So if I'm reading this right, all it takes to make something good is tons and tons of heat?"
…
Once again, Kotori used this moment when meeting new people as an excuse to give a lecture and overexplain the fundamental science behind everyday objects.
Hare was not having any of this. None of this was fascinating at all to her. Those Gehenna students seemed genuinely interested in her talk, and it's not like Hare wanted to be a killjoy, so she just kept quiet. Still, the loud noises of the cafe and Kotori's impromptu classroom was starting to overstimulate her senses. Definitely not helped by the large amounts of caffeine and sugar she's already taken in.
Once again the line moved up for what was probably the fiftieth time since they got here. Hare slowly walked forward with the group. Under her breath, she muttered at Noa, "You're not paying me enough for this…"
Noa, of course, caught that. "Something the matter?" she asked her.
"Nah," Hare replied. "It's nothing."
"You know… If you want, you can do the thing now."
"Hmm. That thing."
"As we agreed on."
Hare shrugged. "Sure. Why not?"
Hare pulled out a tablet and touched the screen a couple of times. It displayed a prompt; Hare hit yes, and a wall of text washed over the screen. New text popped up at the bottom of the screen, pushing the older text up and above, but after two seconds, a single word was on the bottom: Success.
Hare grinned and put the tablet back on sleep mode. Those two seconds watching text on a screen was enough entertainment to last the rest of the waiting time in the line.
Noa saw this too and smiled.
Soon enough, the party made its way to the cashier. She smiled and nodded, indicating that she was ready to take orders.
Hare stepped forward to order first. "I'll have a matcha cheesecake."
The cashier nodded. "Sure thing! One matcha cheesecake."
Hare said, "That's it," ending her order. She stepped aside to get cash out of her pocket.
Before Hare even finished paying, the cashier was already taking Noa's order.
Must be a busy day, huh?
"One chocolate donut and a glazed donut, please," Noa said to the cashier.
"Okay! The donuts should be out in a moment," the cashier responded.
Noa stepped aside and next to Hare. The two exchanged knowing glances. The next member of their party, Junko, started her order.
"Can I have a blueberry Danish?"
"One blueberry Danish," the cashier repeated.
"And a chocolate croissant?" Junko added.
"Chocolate croissant," the cashier said.
A cook came from out of the kitchen and whispered something in her ear.
"One moment please," the cashier said to Junko.
"Uh, okay." Junko didn't seem to think anything was off and continued browsing the menu above the register. Noa and Hare, on the other hand, knew something was about to happen.
The cashier and cook were having a quiet conversation, huddled together. The cashier grimaced.
"We have to tell Pochi right?" the cashier asked her coworker.
"What a pain," the cook said in response.
Again, the cashier turned around to Noa and Hare and said, "Sorry, I'll be right back." She bowed to Junko again and apologized, then hurried off.
Junko's face twitched, and she started tapping her foot. "Man, I just have some pretty rotten luck."
A minute passes by when the digital menu suddenly strikes through half of the menu items. This certainly got the attention of everybody still in line.
The cashier came back with wrinkles on her face and apologized profusely to Junko. "I'm sorry, we're out of-"
"-half the menu?" Junko finished for her.
The cashier grimaced hard and turned towards Noa. "I'm afraid the donut making machine has stopped working. We're fixing it at the moment, but for the time being, we won't be able to get you your donuts."
Noa waved it off. "It can't be helped. If I can change my order, that would be wonderful though."
Hare asked her, "Do I still get my cheesecake?"
The cashier stepped aside to get a slice and handed it over. Hare gladly took it.
"Sweet."
The cashier turned back to Junko and Noa and asked them for a new order.
Junko sighed and both girls cranked their heads to look at the new menu. "Well…"
Junko and Noa finished their orders and stepped aside, letting Haruna, Akari, Izumi, and Kotori take their orders. Haruna and Kotori's orders were modest compared to Akari and Izumi, who each took one of every remaining item.
This disregard for monetary savings fell upon Noa, who flashed a credit card and gave it to the cashier, paying for all expenses of her group.
The Trinity students behind them were growing more agitated, but they took deep breaths and kept their cool, seeing as how it would not be in their best interests to cause a scene right as they got to the front of the line.
Noa's party took a seat at a combined table. Akari and Izumi had to slowly haul all of their items over to the table, gathering the gazes of awed onlookers.
Haruna took the initiative to start a conversation. "Noa, I appreciate you offering to pay for our expenses, but I have to ask, why?"
Noa answered with, "Consider me a patron of the arts. I do wish to hear your thoughts as gourmets on the desserts still offered inside of Trinity." Noa's mouth formed a smile, but the same energy didn't reach her eyes.
Haruna chuckled. "Of course. I'll be sure to write a detailed review and post it on our blog later, so please look forward to it."
Noa nodded her head. "Oh I think I will."
Haruna looked back at the kitchen. "It is a shame that their equipment is experiencing some malfunctions though. Regardless, regular maintenance should be expected and required."
While Haruna was slowly enjoying her meal, Akari was busy devouring the set she bought with Noa's money. "As long as I get tons of food, Noa, I'll do anything you want."
Izumi was taking various slices of her items and combining them into sickeningly sweet and unholy combinations. "Same here!"
Junko nodded and proceeded to enjoy the sugar. She did seem a bit disappointed over not having her first choice though.
The Gourmet Research Society turned their undivided attention towards the unhealthy food in front of them, allowing Noa to look over at Hare.
"It didn't work," Hare told Noa.
Noa shrugged. "Just give it some time."
Kotori tugged Noa's jacket. "So when's the client getting here?" she whispered.
Noa checked phone. "She just got here, actually."
The three Millennium students looked at the entrance of the cafe and spotted a short girl opening the door. All three immediately recognized the halo: it belonged to the president of Gehenna's Disciplinary Committee, Sorasaki Hina.
Junko glanced over at the entrance, spotted the Head Prefect, and started choking on a piece of cake, clearly not expecting to see her in a cafe in Trinity of all places.
"Junko?" Izumi asked.
Haruna sprung out of her chair. "Junko! Quick! Do the Heimlich maneuver!"
Akari, mouth still full of sweets, stood up behind Junko, grabbed her by the shoulders, and faced her towards Haruna. Haruna took out her sniper rifle and aimed it right at Junko. The girl was afforded one glance down the barrel of her club president's gun before it flashed red.
Junko felt an unimaginable force hit her stomach, and a piece of food came flying out of her mouth.
Directly behind her, another student got hit and fell over, knocking over the table she was eating her sweets on, and spilling the food all over the girls she was eating with.
And behind her, the bullet made contact with the cashier, who got dragged along into the kitchen, where the bullet finally stopped after colliding with a gas stove.
Hina, for her part, froze in the doorway, seemingly not expecting to see the Gourmet Research Society there. Either that, or she was dumbfounded by how quickly the situation in the cafe deteriorated as soon as she showed up.
Junko coughed, trying to clear her throat.
"What the hell?"
Haruna rested her rifle on her shoulder.
"My, Junko. You shouldn't eat with your mouth full."
"I wasn't-" Junko coughed again, "-eating with my mouth full."
Meanwhile, the Trinity student that got hit groaned on the floor.
"Uuuuugh."
One of her friends on the other side of the table was covered in cream and silently staring at a plate on the floor.
Her third friend helped her get off the floor. "Are you okay?" she asked.
She stood up, then knocked her friend's arm off her shoulder. "Fine."
"Kazusa," the cream covered girl said.
"Yeah?" the girl named Kazusa responded.
"Let's fuck them up."
"Yeah."
The pair shouldered their guns and switched off the safeties. They took aim at Haruna and fired.
Haruna detected the incoming barrage of bullets and ducked out of the way.
"Ladies!" she shouted. "We have critics in the house!"
Izumi, mouth still full, saluted and shouted back, "Aye aye captain!" She pulled out her machine gun, laid it on the table and fired back at the Trinity students.
The three girls from Trinity dived behind the table for cover.
Kazusa yelled out her complaints over the roaring gunfire.
"They cut in line, order half the menu, then have the balls to shoot us after! That's it! I'm gonna kill 'em! Yoshimi, blow them through the roof."
"Shut up, you say that like I wasn't gonna do that anyways," Yoshimi responded.
She opened her backpack and produced a missile from it. She attached it to the front of her rifle and fired it into the ceiling.
Noa, Hare and Kotori noticed the strange object stick itself in there.
"Run!" Hare exclaimed.
The three ducked under their table, and the missile exploded, crumbling half of the ceiling of the cafe. Students all around the cafe were screaming, and trying to get out of the way of the incoming rubble and bullets.
Naturally, the response of most of the students in the cafe was to pull out their own guns and lay down their own suppressive fire to calm things down. Their actions had the opposite effect.
Bullets found their way into the kitchen. The oven, already smoking from Haruna's bullet, got hit again and exploded, engulfing the entire kitchen and its staff in fire. And just like that, Our Dame erupted in flames.
"The kitchen! Food's there!" Izumi shouted.
"The food!" Akari said.
Haruna added, "We can't just let them go to waste! Come on girls!"
Junko clenched her head and muttered, "Damnit, I knew this was gonna happen. Can't enjoy a snack in peace, can ya, huh?"
Akari, Izuna, and Haruna, meanwhile, bolted out of the table and dashed towards the kitchen in an attempt to raid what was left of the food. They blew right past Yoshimi and Kazusa.
Kazusa yelled at them, "Where do you think you're going?"
Yoshimi shouted, "Oh no you don't! All those sweets are mine!"
Kazusa yelled at her friends, "After them! Airi, cover us!"
Airi cried out in exasperation. "Why can't we all just eat ice cream and get along?" Obeying her friend's orders, she grabbed hold of her submachine gun, switched the fire mode to full-auto, and sprayed it in the direction of any other student who was firing in their general direction.
Hina was shocked at how quickly the situation spiraled out of control. As a prefect, part of her wanted to restore order. But seeing as how she was technically off-duty, undercover, and in a different jurisdiction, she didn't want to stick out and cause a bigger incident.
She juggled the potential diplomatic ramifications of the fact that the Gourmet Research Society is the cause of all of this, but didn't deem it worth the effort of bailing them out of this situation.
No, she was here for one thing, and one thing only.
Peeking out from under the table, Noa spotted Hina and warmly smiled. She got out from under the table and pulled out her pistol. As bullets were flying past her, she calmly took aim at the Millennium drones flying overhead and fired. Each shot hit their mark, and the drones exploded, adding to the trash already piling up on the floor.
Kotama's eyes were glued to the screen. The brawl that broke out in Our Dame was the most entertaining thing she's seen the past week. Gunfire, and explosions galore! The peak of femininity was on full display on the… displays she was watching this on.
Suddenly the live feed on three of the monitors froze. After a few seconds, a popup appeared with the text, "Lost connection." The feed on the monitors switched to a different, noticeably less interesting scene. She immediately understood what that meant.
"Damnit! Just when it was getting good! It switches to something else!"
Kotama leaned back in her chair and sighed. She took out her phone and texted a fire emoji to Noa's phone. She turned off the screen and walked out of the room.
Hare and Kotori crawled out from under the table too to examine the chaos around them.
Hina walked over to the table and sat down next to Junko.
"Hello," she said to everyone at the table.
Junko leaned away from Hina and asked the head prefect, "W-why are you here?"
"I'm not here for the Gourmet Research Society. This time anyways."
Noa giggled. "I forgot to mention that we're being joined by one more person. I wanted to host a mixer!"
"What? For Hina? We all know her." Junko asked her.
"I thought it would be fun," Noa replied. She picked up a plate with a cheesecake slice and handed it to Hina. "I'm sorry that you had to arrive at an… unfortunate timing, but maybe this cheesecake will help?"
Hina cautiously accepted it. "Uh, thanks." Hina observed Noa's eyes, and she observed a genuine smile on the girl's face.
Hina picked up the fork and shoved a chunk in her mouth, almost forgetting that a rain of bullets were flying right by her.
"It's good," Hina plainly stated.
"Oh wonderful!" Noa said.
A series of explosions rang out from the kitchen. Haruna, Akari, and Izumi popped out of the kitchen entrance covered in soot and carrying loads of burnt desserts.
"Junko!" Haruna yelled out. "We're leaving!" Haruna tossed Junko her sniper rifle.
"Ah crap, gotta go!" Junko said. She made close eye contact with Hina. "...See you later."
Junko sprinted off with the rest of her club out of Trinity.
Gunshots could be still heard from within the kitchen. Yoshimi and Kazusa emerged, also carrying burnt desserts. Bullets followed in their wake.
"Stop shooting us! We're innocent!" Yoshimi complained.
"Just move your fatass faster!" Kazusa yelled at her.
"Come on Airi! And don't call me fat!" Yoshimi yelled.
Airi lowered her gun. "Ah, coming!"
The three of them skittered out of the cafe.
Noa smiled at Hina, the emotion and sparkle present in her eyes faded away. "Now that the distractions are gone, we can focus on business now, yes?"
Hina set the cheesecake on the table. She bluntly asked Noa, "Why did you call me here?"
Noa responded, "You want to know what happened at Millennium two months ago, right? I think since you've been working so hard to find out, I would let you know by explaining-"
Noa got hit by a stray bullet in the back of the head and fell over, knocked out.
Hina visibly flinched.
Kotori and Hare crawled over next to Hina and stood up. Kotori excitedly exclaimed, "Don't worry, I will explain what happened while Noa's out!"
Hare picked up Noa's body and said, "Can we move somewhere quieter first? Please."
Hina observed the broken mess that's become of the Trinity cafe and agreed.