The Giant Pancake Challenge
(Based on Angry Grandpa's 'Giant Pancake Challenge' video)
To give newcomers Daisuke Watanabe, Hayato Yajima, and Ichiro Tanaka a proper welcome to the group of Phantom Thieves (Plus Shiho Suzui, Yuuki Mishima, and Hifumi Togo), they all decided to invite them over to Cafe Leblanc for a curry and coffee lunch.
It was a pretty chill day for the most part, the group of 14 teenagers, one cat, and Sojiro talked, joked, and watched videos on Futaba's phone. One certain video involved a movie scene from Grandpa Chuck (Uncle Buck). In the scene, Chuck was making giant pancakes for his grandson's birthday. Seeing the scene gave Futaba a great idea on how they should recreate the scene.
After asking for Sojiro's permission, the 14 teenagers and one cat leave the cafe to get the supplies they need to pull this off. They came back with the following supplies: A few boxes of pancake mix, some bottles of cooking oil, a couple sticks of butter, a large plastic bucket, a power drill with a grout-mixing attachment, some snow shovels to flip their giant pancakes, a metal sheet, some cinder blocks, and an outdoor propane gas stove.
They also grabbed a foldable table to put the pancakes on when they're done cooking.
With all of the necessary supplies gathered, they go to the alley behind Leblanc with it and set up their cooking area.
First, they hook up a propane tank to the outdoor stove before putting the metal sheet on top of it. Once that's done, they turn the valve on the propane tank so the gas can go through the hose and to the stove. After that, they flip a switch on the stove allowing the fire to start and heat up the metal sheet. As the sheet heated up, they then put the cooking oil and butter on it so the surface would get slippery. With the grill set up, it was time to get the pancake batter ready.
"Does anyone know how many boxes we need for the first pancake?" Ren asked his friends, causing them to shrug their shoulders.
"I guess fill it halfway," Makoto said, making a guesstimate.
They filled the bucket up until it was half-full of pancake mix. After that, they took a hose and filled the other half of the bucket with water. Once it was full enough, Ryuji took the power drill, attached the grout-mixing attachment to it, and used it to mix the wet powder in the bucket into some pancake batter. When the batter was complete, Ren took the bucket and walked over to the heated metal sheet with it.
"Oh boy, here we go!" Futaba said as she excitedly rubbed her hands together.
"Pancake numero uno, let's do it!" Hayato cheered.
Ren tipped the bucket over as the batter slowly spilled out onto the metal sheet.
"Make sure you be careful so it doesn't go over the edge of the sheet, Ren," Ann warned her boyfriend.
"It's alright, babe, I got you," Ren said reassuringly as he continued to pour the batter onto the grill.
So far, everything seemed to be going the 14 teenagers and one cat's way. They got permission to do this little project of theirs, they got the supplies with little to no trouble at all, they set up their make-shift grill with no problems, and it looked like it would be smooth sailing all the way through…but when the batter stopped coming out and Ren put the empty bucket down, the pancake, while larger than the average pancake, was a lot smaller than what the group imagined.
"Aw man, it's too small," Ryuji frowned.
"It's still a pretty big pancake," Sumire said.
"And one I'm very much looking forward to eating," Daisuke chimed in.
"It's alright guys," Ren said, "We still have lots of boxes of pancake mix left. We'll use the rest of them in the next pancake."
"Sounds like a plan," Morgana said.
"In the meantime let's focus on the pancake we already have," Ichiro said.
"Indeed," Yusuke concurred, "And I think this is ready to be flipped."
Yusuke grabbed a snow shovel and walked over towards the grill with it. He was about to slip the pancake over when some of the others present started to yell at him, telling him to stop, causing the blue haired artist to jump back, startled.
"Yusuke, back off, man!" Hayato scolded.
"We've got to let it cook, Inari!" Futaba scolded.
"Okay, he's just trying to help!" Haru reprimanded her friends, defending her main squeeze in the process.
"But we've got to let it cook," Futaba said, "If you think I'm eating an undercooked pancake, you're sorely mistaken!"
"Quit acting like a spoiled child," Makoto scolded.
"You want to see me act like a spoiled child," Futaba said as she snatched the snow shovel from Yusuke and walked over a wall with it, making a motion like she was going to smash the shovel against the wall."
"Whoa!" Yuuki said as Futaba put the shovel down and rejoined her friends, "Futaba, let's relax now."
"I just want this to go perfectly, just like in the movie," Futaba pouted.
"News flash, Futaba, real life isn't like the movies," Makoto said.
"Alright back on the topic at hand, please," Yusuke said, "If I can't flip it now, when can we flip it?"
"Give it a few more seconds," Ren said.
"I think we should put some oil on top of this pancake when we flip it," Hayato said to his friends
"That doesn't sound right," Shiho said, "Why do you think we should do that?"
"So it'll be easier to get our snow shovels underneath," Hayato answered.
"Quit talking like you know all about making pancakes," Ryuij said to the scarlet haired man.
"Okay, so maybe I'm guess on this stuff," Hayato admitted, "If we were cooking giant omelets though, it'd be another story. I'd be your head chef, sous chef, and whatever is in between all that."
"Would someone just flip the damn pancake already!" Futaba screamed as she picked the snow shovel back up and threw it onto the ground in a fit.
"Futaba, chill out," scolded Makoto, "Don't break the freaking shovel! We need that."
"Apparently nobody needs it," Futaba said, "If we're just going to let the pancake sit there and burn."
"Babe are you feeling okay?" Yuuki asked his girlfriend worriedly; he'd never seen Futaba so quick to lose her temper like this.
"Don't worry about it," Futaba said as Ryuji got close to Yuuki to whisper something in his ear.
"Must be that time of the month for her," Ryuji whispered into Yuuki's ear, causing the spiky blue haired young man to roll his eyes.
"Alright, everyone, tensions are high," Daisuke said as he grabbed one of his shovels, "Let's just calm down while I flip the pancake."
"Why do you get to do it," Futaba asked, rudely.
"Because when you live in a big house with five younger cousins you get to know your way around the kitchen," Daisuke said as he took the shovel and tried to get it underneath the pancake…the key word being 'tried'. That's because while trying to get the shovel underneath the pancake, he ended up breaking a piece of it off, and worse still, the piece wouldn't come off the shovel.
"Yeah, nice work, Daisuke," Sumire said with obvious sarcasm as Ichiro did a slow clap to accompany her.
"Leave him alone okay, he's trying," Shiho said, trying to defend her boyfriend.
"Are we making a pancake or scrambled eggs?!" Futaba yelled as she continued to watch Daisuke try and get the piece of uncooked pancake off of his shovel.
Between the unfortunate situation in front of them, and Futaba's outburst, everyone but the orange haired gamer and her boyfriend started to laugh…which only made Futaba even more upset.
"STOP LAUGHING!" Futaba cried, "YOU'RE ALL GOING TO RUIN THE PANCAKE!"
With Futaba having a meltdown and Daisuke ruining the pancake causing everyone to lose their tempers, the likes of Yusuke, Hifumi, and Hayato make their way back into Cafe Leblanc to remove themselves from the situation.
"Where are you guys going?" Ryuji asked.
"We're going inside," Hifumi answered, "Everyone is acting crazy, this pancake thing isn't panning out, no pun intended, and we don't want to deal with it until everyone calms down."
Everyone watches as the three Kosei students walk back into the cafe.
"They gave up and walked away from us," Yuuki bemoaned.
"Admittedly they had a good reason for walking," Ichiro said, "Look at us, we're really acting this way over a pancake?! For crying out loud, look at Futaba!"
Everyone turned their attention towards the orange haired gamer girl to find her face buried in Yuuki's shoulder as she quietly sobbed into it. Yuuki meanwhile was rubbing her back in an attempt to comfort her.
"Futaba, are you seriously crying?" Ann asked.
"I was looking forward to doing this and it's ruined," Futaba sobbed.
"It'll be okay, babe," Yuuki said in a comforting tone, "Come on, let's take a walk, maybe you'll feel better."
"Okay," Futaba sniveled as she and her boyfriend left the alleyway.
"And then there were ten," Ren said before grabbing a snow shovel and turning to Daisuke, "Daisuke, grab one of the shovels and help me flip this pancake."
"Got it, buddy," Daisuke said as he grabbed a snow shovel.
"Hang on a minute, guys," Shiho said as she grabbed a bottle of cooking oil, "Maybe we should do what Hayato was talking about and put some oil on the top of the pancake so it doesn't stick."
"If you really think Hayato is onto something, I say go for it," Ryuji said.
Without further ado, Shiho poured some oil onto the pancake and stepped back so Ren and Daisuke could try and flip it. The raven haired boy and the brunette boy slid their shovels multiple times beneath the pancake so it wouldn't stick so much.
"Man, this is like Pangea," Sumire said as she looked at the pancake while Ren and Daisuke worked towards getting it unstuck.
Once the two boys felt like they got enough of the pancake unstuck, they slid their shovels further beneath the pancake and flipped it.
"Alright, we did it!" Ryuji cheered as he clapped his hands.
A few minutes later when the other side was cooked, Daisuke and Ren slid their shovels beneath the pancake again and lifted it off the grill towards the table.
"Well that was easy," Ren said as he and Daisuke used the shovels to carry the pancake to the table.
"I guess Hayato was right about putting oil on top of the pancake," Ann said.
The two young men placed the pancake on the table, and the nine teenagers and one cat admired their work.
"Not bad, team," Ichiro said
"A little burnt, but it still looks edible," Shiho said.
"It looks like a goldfish," Haru said as she looked at the pancake's weird shape.
"Hey, it's a snack that smiles back," Ryuji joked as everyone around him chuckled.
"Alright, everyone, let's get to work on making that second pancake," Ren said as he walked towards the remaining boxes of pancake mix, poured them into the bucket, and then filled it with water from the hose before mixing it with the grout-mixer.
With another batch of batter prepared, Ren poured it onto the metal sheet. But this time, he made sure to spread it around so the pancake will be much bigger than the last one.
"Nice work, babe," Ann smiled.
Like before, the group waited a few minutes before it was time to flip it over, at which point Ren and Daisuke grabbed their snow shovels, and used them to get the pancake unstuck before trying to flip it over.
When the two young men tried to flip the pancake over, however, disaster struck yet again. Upon flipping it, the pancake slid off of their shovels and landed back on the grill in a folded form.
"Aw man," Ryuji whined, "You guys ruined it!"
"Look, we tried, okay?" Daisuke said in an annoyed tone.
"Let me try," Makoto said as Daisuke gave her his shovel.
"Babe, it's toast," Ryuji said to Makoto.
"No, it's a pancake," Morgana told the blonde boy.
"No, by toast I mean it's dead," Ryuji explained to the cat, "We can't save it."
"Ryuji, I can fix this," Makoto said as she slid the shovel underneath the pancake in an attempt to remove the fold.
Unfortunately, no matter how many times Makoto tried, she couldn't get rid of the fold and only ruined the pancake even more. Even worse, with each time she tried to fix it, Makoto could feel her blood pressure rising and she was resisting the urge to rage quit. Eventually, she realized she couldn't fix it and between Futaba's behavior earlier, everyone else's behavior in general, the fact that the second pancake was ruined, and everyone silently judging her as she tried and failed to fix the pancake she felt an anger that she never felt before.
"Damn it!" Makoto bellowed before throwing the shovel down on the grill.
"Whoa!" Ichiro went.
And with that, Makoto began throwing a tantrum where she picked up the shovel and slammed it against the pancake before using said shovel to fling bits of pancake all of the alleyway. As Makoto had her meltdown, the likes of Ren, Ann, Morgana, Sumire, Shiho, Daisuke, Ichiro, and Haru were laughing their heads off with Ryuji watching in shock, not sure what to do to calm his girlfriend down.
"Makie, you've got to stop!" Ryuji shouted.
Makoto wouldn't listen as she continued to push the pieces of pancake off the grill and onto the ground before slamming the shovel down on the ground.
"FUCK IT!" Makoto yelled before she walked over to the other pancake on the table and started ripping it apart with her bare hands.
At this point, Yuuki and Futaba came back from their walk, and the likes of Sojiro, Yusuke, Hayato, and Hifumi came from inside Cafe Leblanc, just in time to see Makoto tearing apart the pancake.
"What a mess!" Sojiro exclaimed as he saw pancake all over the alley.
"What happened here?" Yuuki asked.
"Makoto's lost her damn mind," Shiho said.
"Oh my God!" Hayato exclaimed as Makoto flung pieces of pancake against the wall before flipping the foldable table over.
"Babe, relax!" Ryuji told his girlfriend, "Just chill!"
"I'm out of here!" Makoto shouted, "I quit!"
"How do you go from being able to do it to quitting almost instantly?" Ren asked.
"I quit!" Makoto said again as she walked away from the situation.
"Wait up!" Ryuji said as he followed after her.
With Ryuji and Makoto gone, the rest of the group decided to clean up the mess she made as well as disassemble the grill they created.
"And I thought Futaba crying over the pancake was acting immature," Hifumi said.
"I'm sorry about this Daisuke, Ichiro, Hayato," Ren said to the three new boys of the group, "This was meant to be a day where you get better acquainted with us, but instead you saw the 11 of us at our worst."
"Don't worry about it, Ren," Hayato said, "We all have bad days. Today just so happened to be your guys' bad day."
"That's my Hayato," Hifumi smiled, "Always so understanding."
"I try not to sweat the small stuff that often, Hifumi," Hayato said, "If I did, then I'd have a miserable existence."
"Well said, young man," Sojiro said.
After the mess was cleaned up, the group went their separate ways for the evening. They gave making giant pancakes the old 'college try', but when it came down to it, they all realized they'd rather have normal pancakes instead of giant ones solely because they were less likely to ruin friendships or cause meltdowns among the group.
One thing's for sure, the next time one of them wanted to try something that they saw in a movie, that idea would be dropped harder than Ryuji's grades in math class.