Food Wars: Setting the Way

by

Saints & Kings

Chapter 1: Changing Feelings

It was a special weekend for Megumi Tadokoro; she was visiting her hometown for an annual festival. It was the one time of year that she had always looked forward to as a young girl and even to this day she could barely hold back her excitement for it. Seeing her mother, grandfather and all the other people in the local fishery again after so long away. Yet this year had her feeling more nervous than excited for this weekend.

Staring at the letter in her hand and pondering as to why her mother had even sent it in the first place. The words echoing in her mind, and she tried to wrap her mind around their meaning. In hindsight she should have realized that talking about Soma so much to her mother in her letters home would only have lead to this very situation.

"She wants me to invite Soma to meet the family…" Megumi whispered to herself, pondering the deeper implications and no doubt the questioning from her mother about how they had met. A soft knocking at her dorm room door broke her out of her panicked trance. "Megumi, it's time for dinner," Ryōko called. "Oh, okay. I'll be right there!" Megumi answered, grabbing a cardigan and rushing out; not wanting to make her friends wait.

Ryōko and Yuki were both waiting at the top of the stairs, with worried expressions plastered on their faces. "What's the matter you two?" Megumi asked trying to discern the reason for her friends worry. "What's the matter with us! What's the matter with you? You've been out of it ever since the afternoon," Yuki stomped her foot on the floor, managing to keep herself from shouting. "What do you mean? … I'm fine." Megumi stammered trying to convince them with a warm smile. Though the look on their faces told her that her attempts were not doing anything to alleviate their concerns.

Sighing Megumi finally broke from her stoicalness and asked, "Ummm can I talk to both of you privately after dinner?" The two other girls looked at one another and a reciprocal small smile played on both their lips and they nodded at their friends request. "Just don't skip out on anything Megumi, remember we're here to help." Ryōko replied, grasping her hand, whilst Yuki gave her a warm encouraging smile before they went down stairs to enjoy the meal cooked for them by Dorm Mistress Fumio.

Dinner, other than being delicious was rather uneventful, but Megumi was grateful for that. Seeing how Soma had lost in the Fall Selection; everyone had assumed that he would be distraught and depressed. Yet upon seeing his smiling face and his producing of his latest culinary masterpiece Isshiki and Fumio were adamant in their stating that he was fine. Yet, to Megumi, she was sure that Sōma was, for the most part acting like his normal self, to hide his disappointment. While she didn't have anything to base her assumption on, she still felt saddened that he was so back to looking for a new culinary lane to traverse. "I hope you can all help me in the garden tomorrow" Isshiki spoke, "It would be a good chance for you to unwind from the stress of the past few days". Shun, Yuki and Ryōko all nodded their heads in agreement, as did Daigo and Shoji but Zenji exclaimed that he was going to meet with his cooking club "to test new recipes".

"Well I'm going to head on up. Goodnight everyone." Soma suddenly announced, standing up and pushing himself away from the table and out of the dining room. "Night Sōma!" A chorus of goodnights followed him, before he was out of sight. The mood in the room instantly became somber, and the other residents of Polar Star dorm fell into thought about their dorm mate.

"I wouldn't worry about him too much," Isshiki encouraged his fellows, standing up from his seat.

"Isshiki is right, Soma is still young and finding his way amongst the culinary world, he'll get over it. And remember, the greatest lesson that you can ever have is failure. Those who don't fail never truly learn and improve". Fumio added. "Now, I believe we have a dinner table to clean up, so whose turn is it?" No one spoke up as they all started averting their eyes, trying to come up with an excuse to leave. The dreaded clean up duty.

"I'll leave the duty to my wonderful roommates" Isshiki smiled as he bolted out of the room.

"We girls have very important issues to attend to, so please excuse us," Ryōko quickly exclaimed taking both Megumi and Yuki with her, and making a hasty retreat. Without saying anything Shun stood up and walked out of the room. Daigo and Shoji were hot on his trail, leaving only Zenji.

"Sorry but it looks like you got the short end of the stick," Fumio chuckled, "Have this mess cleaned up before I come back." She said walking out of the room. Sighing, Zenji adjusted his glasses. "Why is it always me?"

Back upstairs and inside her room, Megumi sat on her bed with Ryōko and Yuki beside her. "So what has you down Megumi?" Ryōko asked patting her shoulder comfortingly. Knowing that she could trust both her best friends, Megumi stood up and walked over to her dresser and pulled out the letter from a drawer. "Um well I received a letter from my mother today."

"Yeah we know that much," Yuki interrupted, "we were there when you received the thing. And then you dashed out of the entrance hall up here". Megumi sighed, brushing her blue hair out of her eyes. "You'd understand faster if you two read the letter." Ryōko took the letter from her and read with Yuki beside her. It became obvious very quickly that both girls knew what the fuss was about. Slowly, Megumi raised her right hand and placed it over her beating heart trying to calm her nerves. Eventually, Yuki was the first to stop reading the letter, and with a devious grin on her face rounded on Megumi. "Oho! I see the problem now. Our dear Megumi is worried about how she'll introduce her 'boyfriend' to her family."

If her blushing face could turn any redder then Megumi was sure her face was that, in this moment. "No… it's not like that at all." "Well from the letter, your mother thinks the opposite," Ryōko smiled at the shy girl. "I can only assume you've said some pretty flattering things about Soma when you've spoken to your mother. I get the feeling that she thinks you two are an item." Okay so what if she had spoken about Soma in a very flattering light to her mother? He did deserve the praise that she gave him after all. He was the person that helped her build up her confidence and find her proper culinary style: 'Hospitality', here at Tōtsuki Academy. Not to mention the fact that he'd helped her out whenever she got flustered or anxious, Soma was a true friend. A close friend… a friend that she truly admired and trusted...maybe even liked. More than so.

"No hold, Soma is just a friend and nothing more… yeah… just a friend…" Megumi replied. Yet, the grins and raised eyebrows from Yuki and Ryōko told her that they didn't believe her. "Hey Ryōko, is it me or does it seem like Megumi is having some sort of inner conflict here?" Yuki whispered.

"It seems like that doesn't it?" Ryōko smiled back. "After all, it was Sōma that helped Megumi grow as a chef these past months..." Megumi sighed feeling tired all of sudden, life at Tōtsuki was difficult enough without adding in all these complicated teenage feelings into the mix. "Hey earth to Megumi, is anyone there?" Yuki waved her hand in front of the blue haired girl.

"Uh… why does this have to be so complicated?" Megumi whined sitting on her bed and drawing her knees into her chest. "Hey don't get so down" Ryōko smiled. "After all that's why we're here right?" She was right. After all she did ask for their help, and her friends seemed like they were more than eager to help out. "Okay, okay what am I supposed to do then?" "Well why don't you just go along with what the letter says and invite Soma to go with you. I mean what's the worst that could happen?" Yuki opined. "That or you could not invite Soma to go with you. In either case you're going to have some explaining to do," Ryōko mused out loud.

So when it came down to it Megumi's only two options were to invite Soma, or not. Why couldn't there be a third option in which her mom wouldn't hound her with embarrassing questions. Inviting him would be both awkward, at least in her eyes. Not inviting him though would mean having to explain a bunch of things to her family especially her mother. Thinking carefully it seemed like the easier option would be to not tell Sōma and explain why he couldn't come to her mother. From the corner of her eye Megumi saw Yuki stand up and stretch out her arm towards the window.

"Hey isn't that Sōma out there?" Yuki asked as she and Ryōko went over to the window. "What's he doing out there?" Ryōko chimed in, "it's freezing outside". Now thoroughly curious, Megumi stood up and walked over to the window. And there with small charcoal grill, a cool box under his arms and a satchel over his shoulder, Sōma walked away from the the dorm and towards a small patch of trees where he began setting up his small outside kitchen. "Where is he going?" Yuki wondered. "That's the million Yen question isn't?" Ryōko replied. "Where do you think he's going Megumi?" Ryōko's question flew over Megumi's head, as her body moved on its own. Grabbing a scarf, hat and jacket over her pyjamas, she rushed out of her room and down the stairs after her forlorn friend. "Well, I think she's found her answer" Yuki stated, as Ryōko chuckled. "Yeah, she sure must like him an awful lot if she's rushing out at this hour".