I'm glad that at least someone seems to like my story so far, so a quick "thank you" to those of you who have started reading my story and are enjoying it! I just want to provide a reminder to everyone who wants to review that if you review as a "Guest," I will not be able to respond directly to you - just in case you leave a review that would potentially prompt a response from me - so please keep that in mind when leaving a review. That being said, I will respond in this case to the person who asked about who Daniel's love interest would be. While I am willing to say that he will have a love interest in this story, I will not be revealing who it is before the time comes in the storyline. In other words, I will not be revealing any major plot points early, whether in a general response or in a private one to another user (I don't want to spoil the suspense). I'm afraid you'll all have to either be patient and wait for the reveal, or try to figure it out on your own. Now - on with the story!

On the day of the opening ceremonies, Daniel met up with Soma outside the school with a suitcase and a backpack containing the necessities of living away from home and a few personal items, nervously anticipating what was to come that day. He then took a look at his friend beside him and said with an aura of determination, "Alright. Let's do this." They then headed to the ceremony grounds, stopping at the main office first to drop off their stuff to be picked up after classes. Daniel did take a few items with him, though – his chef's knife, his Irish coin (which he kept in his pants pocket), his notebook, and a brand-new chef's jacket bought as a gift by his parents. It was black with the shoulder portion colored red (like a Starfleet uniform top in Star Trek: Voyager, but without the comm badge), and he knew he would be needing it.

When they arrived, they were greeted by the emcee, a girl and fellow first year named Urara Kawashima. She instructed Daniel and Soma on where they should seat themselves (a designated place just to the side of the stage) as well as how the ceremony would proceed, including the part where she would have each of them make a short introductory speech to the class. This made Daniel a bit nervous, as this was the first he had been told about having to give a speech, and he had nothing prepared, though neither did Soma. The other thing was that Urara didn't say who was supposed to go first, so there was only one way to determine that – a game of rock, paper, scissors. While waiting for the ceremony to start, they faced off, and after a couple of draws, Daniel got the victory with a well-placed rock draw.

As the ceremony moved along, and they heard various people speak, including Erina Nakiri, as the top student of the incoming class, and the headmaster, Senzaemon Nakiri, who also happened to be Erina's grandfather, Daniel began to form an idea of what he would say. He was particularly inspired after he heard master Senzaemon speak about how rigorous the road would be, and that 99 percent of the students were fated to be fodder for the one percent who succeeded in graduating. Finally, Urara informed the audience that the two incoming transfer students would be addressing them.

Daniel went up first – nervous not only about addressing such a large crowd, but also with the risk he decided to take on what he would be saying. As he got up to the podium, he took a deep breath and began to speak. "Wow, that's a tough act to follow, but as I'm now up here, I'll give it a shot anyway. Hi – my name is Daniel Horowitz and I'm happy to be joining all of you here. I have to say, those speeches gave us quite a bit to think about. But with all due respect to our esteemed headmaster, I have to strongly disagree with him on one important point." At this, the audience began to murmur in surprise and confusion that anyone would try to contradict the so-called "demon of food," in any way.

Daniel then continued, "While I am aware of this school's M.O. of reducing the incoming first year class to a minuscule percentage by graduation, there's no actual written rule saying that has to be the case, as far as I can tell." That seemed to get the crowd's attention, as they appeared to wonder where he was going with this. "Look," Daniel said as he grabbed the podium, "we're all here because we all love cooking and we all want to improve ourselves to the point where we can do this for a living. If that's so, then every one of us has something to contribute to our growth as chefs and as human beings. I realize that there is a very competitive nature to this school, but that doesn't mean that we can't also raise each other up to be the best chefs we can be. We all want to be the best, but if more of us succeed at graduating from Totsuki, I think that would be better for the culinary world, don't you think?"

As the crowd began to murmur again in thought about what Daniel said, he ended with, "I'm looking forward to learning from as many of you as I can, and hopefully you'll also be able to learn something from me. Thank you." He then bowed in gratitude before stepping aside to allow Soma to come up to the podium and make his speech. As Soma began to speak, Daniel thought to himself, 'Please don't say anything crazy, Soma.' Then, when Soma began to talk about how attending Totsuki was going to be a steppingstone on his way to the top, Daniel facepalmed and thought, 'Aw, jeez Soma! Why did you have to say it like that!?' As Soma ended and walked off stage right, the crowd began to boo and throw things at the podium, which made Daniel groan in frustration.

As the ceremony ended, Daniel met up with Soma backstage with a bit of a bone to pick. While Soma was laughing about being nervous giving a speech and glad he didn't mess up, like nothing really happened, Daniel scolded him. "Dude! I was trying to build up some goodwill for us, and you destroyed that in ten seconds!" Soma looked at him confused and asked, "What do you mean?" Sighing in frustration and knowing that Soma could be oblivious to how he came off sometimes, Daniel calmed down a bit and stated, "Look, you really need to think about how you say things sometimes. I know you can generally back up what you say, but one of these days you could end up getting yourself into trouble."

At that point, Erina came up to them and glared very harshly at Soma. "Who do you think you are, saying something like that?" she demanded. "Take the top spot at Totsuki? As if! All these other students have spent the last three years learning all of the basics of fine cuisine. A low-level diner chef like you has no chance of being on top!" Soma then grinned and asked, "Three years, huh?" As Erina watched his confident reaction with a bit of surprise, Soma explained that he had been cooking in real kitchens since he was three years old, and that he would not only reach the top, but also make Erina say that his cooking was delicious. Erina then 'humph'd as she walked away, muttering about how she doubted that. Daniel then tugged Soma's sleeve and said, "Hey, let's go! We don't want to be late for our first class here. Looks like we both have a French cooking practicum." The two then raced off to get to class on time.

When Daniel and Soma arrived, they were given the cold stare down by just about everyone in the class (though Soma was somehow oblivious to this). The only one who wasn't giving off a cold aura was a slightly petite bluenette girl with twin pigtails and yellow eyes. Seeing this, Daniel indicated for Soma to follow him towards the girl, where they introduced themselves. She seemed to be a bit more nervous towards Soma than Daniel, but introduced herself nonetheless. "Nice to meet you," she said, "my name is Megumi Tadokoro." She then added to Daniel, "I really liked your speech. I'm glad someone tried to give us some hope." Daniel smiled and replied, "Thanks. I'm glad someone got what I was trying to say." Looking around, it appeared that there was an odd number of students, and since this was supposed to be a team exercise, Daniel and Soma would join Megumi as the only threesome in the class.

As the class began and the instructor entered, Megumi got a terrified look on her face. When Daniel asked her what was wrong, she explained that the guy who walked in was one of the most notorious instructors at the school – Roland Chapelle. "He's tough even for Totsuki instructors! There's a reason he's known as 'the chef that never smiles,'" she stated with quite a bit of panic in her voice. As chef Chapelle began to address the class, he explained that in order to pass that day's class, the dish they cooked would have to be an "A" level dish. "Anything else," he said, "Will be a failure." At this, Megumi began to panic even more, explaining that she had been giving a warning saying that if she failed one more class, she would be expelled. There was a slight hitch to the breath Daniel took before he said, "Then we had better make sure we don't fail."

Chef Chapelle then gave the assigned dish for the class – the classic French dish of Beef Bourguignon – to which Daniel actually smiled a bit. Meanwhile, Soma looked as though he was trying to figure out exactly what the dish was, to which Megumi reacted in horror, "You mean you've never made this before!?" Soma shook his head in response and tried to brush it off, after which Megumi asked Daniel if he had ever made it. "Yeah, I have – once or twice." Megumi breathed a small sigh of relief while Soma, hearing his response, exclaimed, "Seriously!?" Daniel nodded and replied, "Two words – Julia Child."

As they got to work on making the dish, Soma was doing this thing while casually looking around the classroom as though he was just visiting the place. While he tried to get Soma to focus, Daniel noticed that Megumi was definitely focused on the dish – perhaps a little too focused. Trying to get her to relax a bit, he commented, "You know, they say a watched pot never boils." Megumi reacted by popping her head back up with a "Huh?" look on her face. Daniel then chuckled and said, "Relax, Megumi. We've got this." They then stepped away for a minute to prepare a different part of the dish.

When they returned, Soma was there and asked, "Did you two leave the top of the pot open?" At this, Daniel and Megumi saw that the pot's top was indeed slightly ajar. In a panic, Megumi lifted the lid, and the three saw the meat caked with a white substance. Soma tasted it and found it was salt. This made Megumi really panic – the meat was now ruined and there wasn't much time left to possibly fix this! Meanwhile, Daniel looked around and saw a nearby pair looking on with evil grins on their faces. 'A-holes!' he thought to himself. As Megumi began to despair, Soma took off his signature cloth from his wrist and tied it around his head, indicating that he was ready to get serious about this. He then instructed Daniel and Megumi on what to do. When Megumi looked to Daniel as though to ask, "Can he do this?" he nodded and explained, "It may not always seem like it, but he can definitely back up what he said at the opening ceremony – and he's always got a trick or two up his sleeve!"

With that, the three went to work double-time to get the dish done before the class was over. While gathering some of the needed items, Daniel passed by the two saboteurs and muttered in their direction, "You obviously didn't listen to a word I said earlier." As they looked at him in confusion and contempt, Daniel added, "If you want to be that way – fine. Just remember, karma can be a real bitch sometimes."

With about 15 minutes to spare, and to the astonishment of the rest of the class, Daniel, Soma and Megumi were ready to present their finished dish to chef Chapelle. The chef instructor, not giving away anything, began to inspect the dish, and his eyebrows were raised at how tender the meat was. When he asked how they were able to recover so quickly from their little "accident," Soma explained that he used honey to tenderize the meat faster, as it contained protease, which broke down the meat muscles. When he took a bite of the dish, the reaction was absolutely priceless – the chef that never smiled was actually smiling! Soma offered Megumi a taste as well, and she could see why Chapelle was smiling – the taste was absolutely heavenly.

Chef Chappelle then told the threesome that they would be receiving an "A" for this dish, to which Megumi looked very happy. "However," he added, "It is a shame that I can't give you a higher grade – for the dish was absolute perfection!" Both Soma and Daniel grinned at this, while the rest of the class continued to look astonished. Daniel then heard a commotion and turned around to see that the pair that had tried to sabotage them earlier had accidentally dumped a bunch of salt into their own meat pot. He chuckled to himself before shouting at them, "Told you so!" Soma and Megumi then looked at Daniel in confusion, to which Daniel said, "I'll explain later."

After class, as they were finishing cleaning up, Megumi thanked Soma and Daniel for the help they had given her that day. "No problem. It was actually a lot of fun," Soma said. "Yeah," added Daniel, "Let's do it again, sometime." As Daniel was putting the last item into a cabinet, he heard something that caused his blood to freeze. "Hey, Megumi! Do you want to try something I made earlier today?" As he heard Megumi reply, "Sure," knowing what was coming, he raced over to where Soma and Megumi were. Megumi was standing there in shock at what she was seeing Soma try to feed her, but before he could get the chopsticks to her mouth, Daniel took the food container and shoved it into Soma's face, saving Megumi from having to try it.

"You moron!" Daniel shouted at Soma, "We want her to like us! You feeding her your crazy experiments is NOT going to help things!" He then took Megumi aside and calmed down before saying, "Please forgive him. He really is a good guy, but he has the most frustrating quirks." Megumi nodded slowly, still in a daze as to what had just happened, as the two of them walked out of the room. "Should we help him clean up?" Megumi asked as they walked away. "Nah," Daniel replied, "Consider it punishment for trying to pull that crap."

Daniel then turned to Megumi and asked, "By the way, is there a market somewhere on campus? I need to get a few supplies." Megumi nodded and said, "I can show you where to go. What do you need the stuff for, anyway?" Daniel then explained that he would be needing them to make a dish later for some sort of entrance test to the dorm he wanted to stay at. At this information, Megumi's eyes lit up in recognition and she said, "That's Polar Star Dorm! I'm staying there myself, so I can show you where it is!" Grateful that he would already have a friendly face there (besides Soma), he asked Megumi to lead the way, explaining that they would also have to make a quick stop at the main office to pick up the rest of his stuff.