Minimal editing since I ran out of time yet again. I'll fix up anything I notice later.
Takumi looked around his room. He'd already spent the night before packing everything he could away, leaving only his toiletries for the morning and his change of clothes for the bus ride back to Tōtsuki's main campus. The manual for the Training Camp had implied that they'd be immediately dismissed the second they got back, so he didn't bother wearing the pressed button-up and uniform-sanctioned slacks he'd been wearing all week. He checked the time on his phone and decided to prepare himself breakfast before he brought his bags down to be loaded away.
He was halfway through folding an omelet when he heard someone squawk behind him, "Aldini-san?! What the hell are you wearing?"
He peered over his shoulder to see Ikumi staring at him, her eyes wide. She had foregone the school uniform as well, favoring a light blue button-up shirt that had been tied under her chest, leaving her midriff exposed, and high-waisted black denim shorts.
Takumi glanced down at his outfit. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"
She stared at his striped shirt, tucked into light-wash straight jeans, and the dark zip-up hoodie he'd stolen from Isami just before leaving for Japan. "You look European."
Takumi folded his omelet one last time. "I don't know how to break this to you, Mito-san, but I am European."
"You know what I mean." She reached over and batted at the ascot cap on his head. "You wear hats?!"
He ducked away from her hand. "Sometimes," he said defensively. He backed away from the stovetop. "It's open if you want to make anything for yourself."
"I've eaten," she said, following him back to the dining area that had been provided for the students to appreciate. "So. Visiting Italy? Seeing new places? Very low-key. Uninteresting, even."
"You know what I meant," he said irritably. "You didn't even cover what your actual plans are. All you said was 'consulting work' this, 'family business' that."
"What can I say, I'm a girl of many secrets," Ikumi said airily. "Let me know if you want anything from Texas."
"What could I possibly want from Texas?"
The two of them wandered to a table where Daigo and Shōji were arm-wrestling over Zenji's collapsed form. Yūki was conspicuously absent and Ryōko was watching the two boys over a steaming mug.
She raised the mug in greeting. "Hello, Mito-san. We missed you at dinner last night, Aldini-san. Did you sleep well?"
"Well enough." Takumi stared at where the boys' elbows dug into Zenji's shoulders. "Should we be stopping that?"
Ryōko shrugged. "Marui-san actually adjusted so that they were sticking into specific areas in his back. I think they're pressure points."
Ikumi stared at them for a while longer. "You Polar Stars are weird," she said emphatically.
"I prefer 'eccentric'," Ryōko said without missing a beat, taking another sip from her drink.
The bus ride back was surprisingly uneventful, though Takumi felt more aware than ever of all of the looks he was getting from classmates he didn't recognize. He couldn't blame them for staring; he hadn't really expected Momo to flop down beside him either.
He lasted all of fifteen minutes with Momo quietly squishing Bucchi's face next to him before he caved. "Did you need something, Akanegakubo-san?"
"Hmm?" Momo sounded distracted. "Aldi-nyan, do you think Bucchi's getting dirty?"
Takumi glanced at the stuffed animal. It was a little worse for wear, the once bright magenta of its body slightly gray from being dragged around everywhere Momo went. It even looked like his front paws were on the wrong leg. "He looks fine to me."
Momo nodded imperiously as she held Bucchi at arms length in front of her, looking over it critically. "That's what Momo thought. That stupid Nakiri-hime insisted that I needed to replace Bucchi soon, but what does she know?"
"Erm, nothing?"
"Exactly!" Momo turned to him. "If you keep this up, Aldi-nyan, you might just lose all of your cuteness. That would be nice. I hate cute boys."
Takumi took a moment to wrap his mind around whatever she'd just said. "Are you… not into boys?" he asked delicately.
Momo would have dropped Bucchi on the floor of the bus if Takumi didn't manage to snatch it in time. She turned to him with the most thunderstruck look that he'd ever seen across her face.
"Huh?" she managed.
"I mean, it's fine if you don't," Takumi said hurriedly. "I don't care or anything, I was just curious, y'know— just, how you worded it made it sound like—"
"Momo thinks boys are okay," she said firmly, cutting him off. "But cute people in general are… well, they can't be around Momo." She took Bucchi back from Takumi with a single firm tug. "Momo makes cute things. Cute enough to eat, most of the time. You can't eat people. People shouldn't be cute."
"So, when people are cute, they're not good…?"
"Don't make Momo repeat herself," she said flatly. "This conversation is boring. You're becoming cuter every second you extend it."
"Sorry, I think." Takumi chanced another glance towards Momo, who was rooting through her bag for something. When she unearthed a heart-shaped lollipop from between her pastel yellow planner and bright pink notebook, he asked, "What kind of consulting do you do?"
Momo pulled the plastic off of her candy and stuck the lollipop in her mouth. "Hmm?"
"Last night, at dinner, you mentioned that you had consulting work that was different from Nakiri-san's. I just— I don't think I've heard anyone talk about the kind of work you do."
"Hmph. That's because no one at this stupid school cares about that," she muttered. Her knuckles were white where she scrunched Bucchi's face, and when she let go the wrinkles took a little longer than normal to smooth out. She sighed quietly. "Manufacturing companies hire me as a consultant. They ask me to look at their prototypes and choose whichever will be the cutest, most in-vogue that season. Then, they expect their profits to skyrocket after they focus all of their marketing on that one product. I mean, if you fail to sell something well after being told that it's cute enough to succeed by the Akanegakubo Momo and then sinking millions of yen into advertising it, then you're just not a good company, y'know? Of course it does well. Helps that I know 'cute', I guess."
Takumi blinked at the rant. "Um."
Momo's brain caught up to her words and she slammed her mouth shut with a click! of her teeth. Takumi thought he heard her candy crack. "Momo does important, good work," she said flatly. The inflections of her words made it sound like she was quoting someone.
Another awkward silence fell between the two of them.
Takumi reached into his backpack and took out a bright yellow bag. He tipped it towards Momo. "Bonbon?"
Momo cautiously took one. "Ambrosoli?" she read out.
"They're good," Takumi muttered, picking one out for himself. "Honey candies."
Momo looked at him quietly before quietly pocketing it. "Thanks, Aldi-nyan."
"You're kidding," Ryōko said, staring at the unfortunate bus driver delivering the bad news.
The man shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry. I don't know what else to tell you."
"You're telling me that you can't drop us off back at our dorm?"
"Our instructions said to drop everyone off at the central area of campus. Most dorms are barely a block or two away from here, so it was deemed as the most logical spot to let you all off—"
"Did your supervisor just not realize that Polar Star is so distant?!" Daigo slammed his hand on the side of the bus with a loud CLANG! Takumi winced sympathetically. "It'll take hours for us to get back on foot, and that's without all of our luggage! Surely, someone can get us there."
The bus driver pointedly avoided making eye contact with Yūki, who had immediately whipped out her teary-eyed puppy-dog expression the second the mix-up was discovered. "Look kid, I don't know what else to tell you. I'm officially off the clock; I could get fired if I complete another job without a contract. Someone could report me for kidnapping."
"Kidnapping? By taking us home?" Shun said flatly.
The man shrugged helplessly. "It's the law, kid."
"If you care about the law so much, we could sue you for child endangerment," Shōji said far too enthusiastically.
"Technically, we're on school grounds so the case would be thrown out immediately," Zenji muttered under his breath.
"Look, I'm real sorry. I don't want to be the one dumping a bunch of kids with all of their stuff and saying 'deal with it', but I'm literally not allowed to drive this bus anywhere but back to the garage it came from. I'm happy to stick around until you figure something else out, if you feel that unsafe."
"That's fine," Shun said immediately. "We understand. We'll figure something out."
"Ibusaki-cchi!" Yūki whined.
He ignored her. "Have a good night, sir. We'll talk to the school administration about expectations for our transport in the future."
The bus driver nodded, relieved. "Alright. Good luck, kids."
Takumi watched the bus driver peel out of the parking lot before turning to Shun. "Okay, what do you have planned?"
The other Polar Star residents froze with their luggage. They'd clearly already resigned themselves to making the awful trip to their dorm on foot. "Eh?" Yūki's exclamation sounded over everyone else's questions.
Shun had his phone out. "Debating on if I want to cash in a whole favor over this," he muttered. "Is it even worth it?"
"Ibusaki-san, I'm sure that it was a hard-fought battle for you to get that favor. However, if I'm not home and asleep in my own bed in the next two hours, I will make the rest of this month a living hell for you," Ryōko said sweetly.
Shun stared at her impassively for a second or two before turning back to his phone, flipping to a contact, and calling it.
Someone picked up. "Hi, senpai," Shun said impassively. "We just got back to Tōtsuki, but the bus driver couldn't take us all the way to Polar Star. Could you call a car or two for us to get home? We'd get there long after dark if we tried to walk it."
An indistinct question.
"Because Isshiki-senpai would tell us to enjoy our youth and embrace the opportunity to appreciate the fresh late-spring air if I asked him," Shun deadpanned.
A pause. More indistinct words.
"Thank you. We'll see you soon." He hung up with a click.
"Who was that? Who was that?" Yūki bounced on her heels.
"Someone with access to a car."
"You gotta give me more than that, Ibusaki-cchi—"
"I'm getting more tired just watching her," Takumi commented, staring as Yūki slowly went from just bouncing to hopping up and down, begging Shun for answers he had no intention of giving.
"She's a bit… energetic," Ryōko said diplomatically.
"That's one way to put it."
Two cars drove up to where the group of students milled about. The driver's side window rolled down on one of them, revealing Megumi. "Hello, you all!" she said mildly, leaning out of the window.
"T-Tadokoro-senpai!" Zenji somehow stood even more stiffly. He swayed slightly, as though he was a second away from falling down.
"Are you driving us home, Tadokoro-senpai?" Ryōko asked faintly.
She smiled. "Well, I wasn't doing anything in particular, and Ibusaki-san is, to some degree, my responsibility of sorts. Let's get going, shall we?"
Takumi ended up in the car Megumi was driving, along with Shun, who immediately claimed shotgun, Ryōko, and Zenji. Zenji immediately lolled his head against the window and knocked out for the half-hour drive to the dorm.
"Did you all enjoy Camp?" Megumi asked as they pulled out of the parking lot.
"It was illuminating," Shun mumbled.
"I don't know if I had fun, per se, but I didn't hate it all around," Ryōko said cautiously. She nudged Zenji, who just flopped forward more, lost to the world.
"I think I enjoyed it," Takumi said slowly. "It felt like getting real experience, if that makes sense? Like… I don't know. We were still treated like students, for sure, but there was more riding on how well we did and how a customer might perceive our dishes." Takumi glanced out the window. "It felt real."
"I'm glad you got something substantial out of it, Aldini-san," Megumi said with a warm smile through the rearview mirror. "Not too many students would be able to look at the big picture like that." She glanced over her shoulder as she signaled right. "Will I see any of you at Faction recruitment in autumn?"
"Probably not either Marui-san or I," Ryōko said, sounding somewhat regretful. "As fascinating as Gold Faction rules sound, our specialties rely far more on principles from Silver."
Megumi hummed. "You're a fermentation specialist, right? I'm certain that Nakiri-san at the very least would have a whole list of ideas for you. Have you got your requirements in order?"
"Not all of them yet," Ryōko admitted. "I've still got to ask for a faculty recommendation and figure out two more proposed studies. Marui-san's actually been pretty helpful on the latter. Last I checked, he's got his all ready to go, though knowing him he's going to change all of his study topics over the summer."
"Sorry, transfer student here. Faction recruitment?"
Megumi looked startled in the mirror. "Ah, apologies, Aldini-san. Technically, students can join the Gold or Silver Factions whenever they want throughout the year, but both hold recruitment drives in autumn, before Moon Banquet Festival preparations start up in earnest. To make it easier on recruiters, we have a series of prerequisites that we ask potential members to complete and submit."
"Silver Faction asks prospective members to submit anywhere from five to ten plausible new studies into any cooking topic of choice, a recommendation letter from a faculty member not associated with your dorm, and a completed application form. The form is pretty standard: name, year, specialty, recipe that you wish to master by the time you leave Tōtsuki," Ryōko ticked off. "The hardest part for me has been the studies; they have to be written like academic paper proposals and I've never been good at those."
"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Megumi said. "The students reading your proposals don't expect you to be a genius or anything; they just want to see how far your personal curiosity leads you and where they can help you. I'm sure the studies you're thinking of will be interesting enough for them, especially with your access to Polar Star resources."
"What does the Gold Faction ask for, then?" Takumi asked.
Megumi tapped a finger on the wheel of the car. "Honestly? It's hard to say," she said slowly. "We have a two-step process, and the second step changes for everyone. The first step is a standard challenge to build a recipe from some set of restrictions."
"I didn't join during Faction recruitment," Shun said quietly. "I didn't even know I was being tested to join the Faction, if I'll be honest."
"What sorts of restrictions?"
"Usually some sort of limited list of ingredients along with a time limit," Megumi said. "When I joined, my recipe had to include okra, seitan, and asafoetida, and I had four hours to produce a dish along with a recipe no longer than the side of one card. It's not my favorite dish that I've ever created, but I still cook it on occasion."
"Four hours seems like a lot of time," Takumi said.
"Perhaps for a competition," Megumi allowed, "but we want a dish that could be served to a restaurant on the spot, with only some room for improvement, if that makes sense. A dish you'd be proud to serve in a Shokugeki despite just coming up with it. And again, that's just to get to the second step."
"Even winning the Autumn Election isn't enough to get you past that first step, famously," Ryōko told Takumi, "whereas winners are freely offered a spot in the Silver Faction for demonstrating their prowess over all of the ingredients of their previous rounds."
Takumi hummed, and conversation swiftly flowed onward as Megumi gave Ryōko more tips on how to write a study proposal. He sank into his thoughts. It's not that Takumi had forgotten about the Factions; rather, he hadn't thought too hard about them in the wake of Sōma's challenge. Takumi had sort of assumed that Factions were the school's version of honor societies, places for talented students to mingle and network. He hadn't realized that they were places for students to continue to push for excellence— but wasn't that the point of Tōtsuki? To aim for the top and then try to top that? Knowing that, it made sense for the Factions to demand such intense work simply to join.
Did he want to join one?
The overachiever in him was flabbergasted that it was even a question. He'd flown across half of the world to be here, of course he was going to grab at every single opportunity to excel. It felt almost stupid not to. The other part of him, the part that was steadfast and stubborn and determined to succeed at running a restaurant, scoffed and wondered if it was important enough to deviate from his plan. Hadn't he told his classmates that he didn't care what they thought of him? Wouldn't making such efforts to get approval distract him from his goal? At what point was trying to get better at his craft an excuse from working towards his actual plans for his future?
"Aldini-san?" Ryōko nudged his shoulder. "We're here."
Takumi blinked and glanced out the window to see Polar Star in front of them. "Ah, sorry, I zoned out."
"We could tell." Ryōko smiled. "Would you mind if I used your door? Marui-san's still passed out."
The students grabbed their luggage and waved Megumi a goodbye before heading into the large building. Fumio was waiting for them in the foyer, her arms crossed as she held a feather duster in one hand.
"There you all are!" she crowed. "I was wondering where you were."
"Driver mishap," Shun said.
Fumio shook her head with a sigh. "Happens every year. Glad to see that you all made it through the Camp with—" she glanced at Zenji— "minimal concern."
Daigo and Shōji lifted the still pale boy onto their shoulders. "We'll take care of 'im!" the former said cheerfully.
Fumio snorted. "See that you do. Isshiki-kun's got dinner ready for you all in the kitchen whenever you want it."
The concept of a warm dinner immediately released tension that Takumi didn't realize was knotting his shoulders, and he joined his dormmates in hurriedly throwing his bags on his bed and running back to the kitchen, where he was met with Satoshi in his apron and nothing else.
"Agh!" Yūki promptly threw her hands over her eyes. "Isshiki-senpai! Just for tonight, can we not have any weirdness?"
"I have no idea what you're referring to, Yoshino-san," he chirped. "Ah, my wonderful underclassmen, back again to enjoy the spoils of youth! A time of rest before the fires of autumn take over from the winds of summer, this wondrous time where we can enjoy the earliest fruits of our harvests!"
"Technically, we'd be enjoying the vegetables," Shun muttered.
"I missed your exuberance at Tōtsuki Resort, Isshiki-senpai," Ryōko said with a sigh. "It's strangely uplifting to hear you speak."
"Thank you for that wonderful compliment, Sakaki-chan," Satoshi said with a grin. "Now, you're not here to hear me wax poetic, though I certainly can if you'd like."
"How about over dinner?" Takumi asked wryly.
"Of course! Aldini-kun, you know precisely what I mean." Satoshi ushered them to the other room. The table had already been fully set with bowls of rice and fish for each of them, along with a few larger dishes for them to pick through. The first-years sank into their chairs, finally feeling the tension that the Training Camp had built up inside of them dissipating.
Later that night, long after curfew, Satoshi found two of his underclassmen in the kitchen, quietly discussing something as one of them cooked. Shun was sitting backwards in a chair, his arms crossed on the back of it and his head slumped on top, and Takumi was stirring something while carrying on their conversation, his sleeves rolled up and his hat hanging from a chair, abandoned. Fumio must have caught them cooking, since she sat at the dining table as well, quietly interjecting occasionally.
"Well, isn't this lovely?" Satoshi said as he walked in. "Are you still hungry, Aldini-san?"
"Hm? No, not really," Takumi said, his tone distracted. "I had an idea that needed to be tested."
"A dish?"
"Of sorts." Takumi went back to whisking something in a bowl. "Agrodolce."
Satoshi's eyebrows furrowed at the unfamiliar word.
"It's a flavor profile that also describes a dish," Takumi said. He frowned at his bowl. "It's Italy's version of sweet-and-sour sauce. Vinegar and sugar, usually."
"And you're up at midnight making it?"
"Aldini-san got a very big offer while at Camp," Shun said suddenly. "I think the magnitude of it finally hit him."
Satoshi perked up. "Oh?" He felt excitement trickle into his veins. "What sort of offer, Aldini-san?"
Takumi began stirring more furiously. "Just for the summer," he muttered, sounding embarrassed, almost. "Just to follow one of the chefs around. Act as an assistant."
"Chef Mizuhara invited him to travel around Italy outside of Tuscany," Shun filled in helpfully. "She had a letter sent here with all of the details, and Fumio-san gave it to him after dinner. Apparently, she's trying to develop a new—"
"An entirely new agrodolce flavor profile, all based firmly in Italian flavors." Satoshi blinked. A slight, subtle wail had entered Takumi's voice. "She asked me to come along to help her make a new discovery this summer. A second mind helps spark epiphany."
"That's a quote from the letter," Shun said.
"I see." Satoshi sat at the table. "So now, you're making agrodolce. At midnight. The day that your Camp wrapped."
"I also think this is foolish," Fumio grumbled. "You can start panicking tomorrow; I'm too old to follow you around when you get this deep in the weeds over something."
"Don't be like that, Fumio-san." Takumi slid over the bowl in his hands. She picked it up with an air of resignation. "Please, give it one more taste?"
Fumio muttered to herself about anxiety-ridden teenagers who can't let an old woman get her rest before taking the bowl, dipping a chopstick in it, and running it over her tongue. "Mellower. The pepper you added takes away the bite of the vinegar, but not enough for it to lose its contrast with the golden raisins." She put the chopstick down, exasperated. "When will you be satisfied with what you've got, Aldini-san?"
Takumi ignored her question. "What would you pair it with?"
Fumio rubbed her eyes. "Some sort of protein. Aldini-san, you're panicking."
"Of course I'm panicking!" Takumi said, snatching up his new agrodolce. He gave it a taste himself, mind visibly racing as he turned back to the kitchen counter, which looked like it held half of the pantry. "It's missing something—"
"The only thing you're missing right now, Aldini-san, is sleep," Satoshi said firmly. "Fumio-san is right. You can start experimenting tomorrow. Tonight, you should try to relax a little. You've just come out of a week of high-stress situations; it's okay, if not recommended, to take some time to relax and mentally reset."
Takumi stared at him. "I don't have time to reset," he stressed.
"You do, because you'll find some," Satoshi said firmly. He shooed the first-year student away from the counter. "Go. Straight to bed. I'll clean up the kitchen."
"But Isshiki-senpai—"
"That wasn't a suggestion, Aldini-san." Satoshi gave him what he hoped was a stern but kind look. "Go."
Shun dragged Takumi away before the boy could keep arguing.
"Finally!" Fumio sighed. "He was at it for an entire hour before you got here. I only got here twenty minutes ago and I'm tired of tasting the same thing every minute."
"He seemed quite frazzled," Satoshi commented. "Was I that excitable as a first-year?"
"Absolutely not, but that just makes him normal. You were not a normal first-year."
Satoshi grinned at her as he slotted the last of the jars from the counter back on its shelf. "A lovely compliment, coming from you."
Fumio sighed. "You should get some sleep too. Knowing you, you'll be awake with the sun to welcome in the harvest."
"Ah yes, the fields do beckon. Good night, Fumio-san."
Not sure when I decided that every single high-achieving kid in Shokugeki needs therapy for gifted kid syndrome, but here we are.
Food notes: Ambrosoli candies (they call them caramelles) is a brand of honey-based candy from Italy. It comes in a handful of flavors, including anise and balsamic. Agrodolce is, as Takumi said, a sweet-and-sour sauce native to Italy. There's no one recipe for it; it's more a descriptive of the flavor combination than a particular combination of ingredients. Most recipes that I've found utilize vinegar or sherry and some sort of fruit.
This chapter marks the end of the Training Camp arc! As previously stated, I'll be taking a couple of weeks to prepare and begin drafting the Summer Break arc, which will be about Takumi traveling across Italy with Fuyumi in pursuit of a new cooking epiphany unlike any other... or at least, the beginning of one. I'll be veering far away from canon events for this one, but I hope it interests you nonetheless :)
If you want to support my work financially, I have a ko-fi under the same username as this account (Shriayle)! I'm also debating on setting up a small Discord, since makes discussion pretty difficult (though I do my best to reply to as many reviews as I can). If you have thoughts on that, feel free to let me know. The story will continue to update twice a week on AO3 until I catch up with where I am here. I'll see you all in a couple of weeks!
