Mayu and Aki were surprised to see the lights on at shokujidokoro Yukihira on their way home from school.

"Hey, Mayu," Aki half-whispered. "You were crushing on Soma-kun pretty fierce, right?"

Mayu flushed red as she nodded, trying to forget the redhead who had clearly moved on to bigger and better things…

And who was staring her right in the face.

"Mayu! Aki! Hey!" Soma said as he finished rolling up the shutter on the front of the diner. "Good to see you guys!"

"Hey! Soma-kun's back!" one of the onlookers in the shopping district said.

"Is Yukihira open?" another said. "I miss the food so much…"

"Oh yes," Soma said, grinning. "We'll be around all week. Doors open in an hour or so."

Murmurs spread throughout the shopping district, and sure enough within an hour the doors to shokujidokoro Yukihira were open, staffed by Soma and someone Mayu didn't recognize. Mayu was one of the first in, and took a seat at the bar by the kitchen. She was amazed at how well the two seemed to work together. Soma was leading the service, taking orders and doing the lion's share of the cooking, while the other chef mostly relegated herself to prepwork, with a huge chip on her shoulder.

Mayu was good with people that way. She knew she didn't have any skills, or talents, and she wasn't in any clubs, but she could read people rather well, and it was clear that something was bothering Soma's assistant today. But her presence bothered Mayu. She was gorgeous, and it seemed like every time she saw Soma, he was more and more out of reach.

Aki sat down at one of the empty stools next to Mayu. "So, Soma-kun," she said. "Who's your friend?"

"Ah, right," Soma said. "This is Mito Ikumi, one of my classmates at Tootsuki."

"Sup," she said, mostly ignoring them as she continued cutting into an array of vegetables with her knife.

"Nikumi, these are some of my friends from junior high," Soma said. "Be nice."

"She your girlfriend, Soma-kun?" Aki asked like a nosy four year old.

Ikumi flushed red, and the rhythm of her chopping stuttered for a moment.

"Nah," Soma said. "Stuff happened just after I transferred, and, uh, long story short, we're kinda running a research society, so we're using this vacation to work on our synergy in the kitchen and try to develop some new recipes."

"Research society?" Mayu asked.

"It's sort of like a club," Soma said. "Ours is focused on a variety of quick, cheap meals, and we're set to start serving food to the student body soon."

"Ah, like a student run cafeteria," Aki said. "How many Yukihira recipes will make the menu?"

"No clue," Soma said, tossing a wok full of fried rice. "There's already a wealth of recipes we can draw from. We're going to have a planning meeting once the break is over, and I'll only draw from the Yukihira menu if there's a hole in the menu we need to fill."

"What?" Aki said. "But Yukihira food is so good!"

"Maybe so," Soma said. "But this isn't us opening another shokujidokoro Yukihira. We're trying to feature the recipes our senpai have developed focusing on their specialties. There's a lot of history and great flavor there, and I don't want to just get rid of all that because I grew up cooking something different."

"Hm," Aki said, elbowing Mayu. "Maybe we'll have to take a trip to Tokyo to visit."

Mayu flushed red. "Yeah, maybe."

Ikumi shook her head. "We don't have permission to serve the public, just Tootsuki students."

"Though," Soma said, plating the fried rice and walking out of the kitchen. "You'd definitely enjoy the shenanigans we get up to if you visit."

Mayu gulped. She knew Soma liked to have fun in strange ways, like feeding others his disgusting creations, but she never thought him a party animal. "Uh…"

Aki gave Mayu a wicked grin as she wrapped an arm around her. "Of course we're in! Nothing interesting ever happens around here."

Ryo and Ibusaki finished packing Ryo's things from his room in Nakiri manor, and after loading themselves up with luggage bags, started the trek uphill towards Polar Star.

"You sure today is a good day?" Ibusaki asked.

Ryo nodded. "Erina is in Europe, and Alice took Hisako to the spa. Nobody will be around until we're long gone."

Ibusaki shrugged. "Seems good, then."

Something in Ryo shifted, and Ibusaki sensed his discomfort before he spoke. "Thanks, Shun."

"You've still got to pass the entrance exam," he said.

"Yeah, yeah," Ryo said. "I'm more worried about how Alice will handle me leaving."

Ibusaki considered it for a moment. "At least you won't be around to witness the tantrum."

Ryo took out his phone, scrolled to Alice's number, and hit block. For the first time in a long while, a genuine smile appeared on his face. "No. No I won't."

Ikumi's stomach rumbled. "Oi, Yukihira! Are we going to eat anytime soon?"

Soma scratched his head. "Uh, yeah, sorry. Sometimes I get so engrossed in cooking that I forget to eat." He gave her an apologetic smile. "What do you want?"

"I'm not picky," she said. "What do you recommend?"

"Hmm," Soma said as he plated a mapo tofu set and started walking out to the dining area. "Gimme a sec to think."

"My favorite is the sesame chicken set," Aki said, looking up from her laptop.

Ikumi's eyebrow twitched. Soma's junior high friends were totally cramping her plans to use this time to get closer to Yukihira. Sure, they'd just pulled out their computers and worked on their homework all afternoon, but something about Mayu in particular irked Ikumi. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was up between her and Yukihira.

"Oh!" Soma said. "I know! Sit tight, Nikumi, I got something that'll knock your socks off!"

Ikumi cleaned her knife off and put it back into her thigh holster as she leaned back against the wall, watching Yukihira cook. He was truly in his element here, and it showed in how he moved through the kitchen, where everything was second nature to him. And Ikumi couldn't help but smile as she watched him cook. He was truly having fun, enjoying every moment, and Ikumi realized that she'd had fun today too. Cooking with Yukihira wasn't as taxing as it normally was for her, and she'd kept pace with him through a six hour shift just fine. She'd never done that before. The longest she'd ever been in a kitchen before this were the three hour classes where you prepare one dish, with lots of downtime to rest. This shift had been fast paced, spitting out dish after dish after dish, and somehow she came out the other end just fine, if a bit hungry.

"Oagario!" Soma said, putting a bowl of fried rice in front of her.

"Fried rice?" Ikumi said, raising an eyebrow. "I wanted a meal, not a snack, Yukihira."

"Oh, it's a meal," Soma said, smirking. "This is something that dad came up with when he worked in the states. I present: Thanksgiving Fried Rice, Yukihira Style!"

Ikumi looked at the unassuming bowl curiously. She'd celebrated Thanksgiving a few times when she was growing up, as the Mito Conglomerate had offices in America and she'd spent a fair bit of time across the Pacific. She knew that there wasn't any turkey, as the bird was hard to find in Japan, but nonetheless it smelled just like Thanksgiving.

Ikumi took a bite and… Sausage? Cornbread? Stuffing? Chiles? All in fried rice? What was going on? It was like she fell from the top of the flavor tree and hit every branch on the way down.

Aki looked enviously at Ikumi's dish. "Oi, Soma-kun! How come you've never made that for us?"

"Dad always saved this for special occasions," Soma said, giving Ikumi a warm smile. "This was the first time Nikumi and I really worked together in a kitchen. Figured it was worth celebrating."

Ikumi kept eating.

"Do you think we could try some, Soma-kun?" Mayu asked.

"Oh, sure," Soma said as Ikumi's eyebrow twitched. "This is one of my favorites, so I always make a little bit extra."

Ikumi watched Soma fill two small bowls with fried rice and hand them to Mayu and Aki. They took a bite, and Ikumi wondered if her face looked like theirs when she tried it.

"Why isn't this on the menu, Soma?" Aki asked. "This is great!"

Soma paused in thought, but Ikumi responded first. "You know how a lot of people have fried chicken and mashed potatoes for Christmas?"

Aki nodded. "Yeah, our family does that every year. Mom has to reserve our bucket over a month in advance."

Ikumi continued. "Would you want fried chicken for Christmas if you'd had it two or three times a month for the whole year?"

Aki thought about it for a moment. "Not really. It'd be part of my routine at that point."

"Yeah. Part of what makes it special is how infrequently you eat it," Ikumi said. "Thanks, Yukihira. That was great."

"It's nice to have you back, Soma-kun," Mayu said.

"It's nice to be back," Soma said, a glowing smile on his face. "I've missed this place."

"We've missed you too, Soma-kun!" a chorus of voices said from a table in the back.

"Who are they?" Ikumi asked.

"They're all part of the shopping district association," Soma said. "Tomita-san is the chair and runs the bento store, Honda-san sells beer and homebrewing equipment, and Tachibana-san owns the hardware store."

Ikumi looked at the table of sullen men, and felt the same type of annoyance that Konishi-senpai always gave her.

"Soma-kun!" Tomita said, tears in his eyes. "Hit me!"

"We're not a bar, Tomita-san," Soma said. "And besides, I'm too young to be serving alcoholic beverages."

Honda pulled a can of beer out of seemingly nowhere, flipped it, cracked it, and put it down in front of Tomita with a flourish. "Cut him some slack, Soma-kun. He's been like this ever since they finished renovations on the bullet train station."

"That stupid Mozuya!" Tomita said, downing the beer in three gulps and tossing the can aside. "Why do mega investors and corporations have to ruin small town Japan?"

Ikumi took offense to that. "Why you insolent little…"

Soma put a restraining hand on her shoulder before she could slug Tomita. "Be nice Ikumi. Something's up."

Ikumi paused to observe her surroundings. It took a second, but she realized that the shopping district seemed… empty.

And Soma's hand was on her shoulder. She flushed red.

Soma nodded, having made the same observation about the shopping district. "Tomita-san, what's going on?"

"Oh, Soma-kun!" he said, tears streaming down his face. "It's that stupid Mozuya karaage…"

Ikumi listed to Tomita as he told them about the shopping district's problems, with much nose-blowing from Tomita and beer conjuring from Honda.

As the shopping district association left the diner, Soma pulled out his phone and started texting furiously.

"Yukihira?" Ikumi asked. "What's going on?"

"This seems like serious business," he said. "I'm calling in backup."

Alice was sitting back in the mudbath, enjoying the warm, slow bubbling from the vents underneath her seat. She lifted a cucumber from her left eye to glance at Hisako, talking carefully so she wouldn't crack the cream facemask the spa attendant had applied.

"I told you a day at the spa would be worth it, Hisako."

Hisako, also in facemask with cucumbers over her eyes, hair wrapped up in a towel, smiled. "You know, Alice, I normally hate letting you be right, but this time, I don't care. This is fantastic."

"I know, right?" she said. "We've got massages later too."

Hisako groaned in pleasure. "Alice, I could kiss you."

"Mou, get in line," she said. "Besides, I'm still a bit scarred from Gotoda-senpai's challenge at camp."

"Ugh, yeah," Hisako agreed. "That man is a total perv. I should talk to Senzaemon-sama about keeping him away next year."

"Nah," Alice said. "Pervs are everywhere. It's not pleasant, but we might as well get used to dealing with them now. It's better than getting blindsided by packs of roving stalkers after you make it in the culinary world without knowing how to deal with them."

"True," Hisako said, relaxing a bit deeper into the mudbath. "I also had to do Gotoda's aphrodisiac challenge. I swear, he had to have laced the room with something."

"I know, right?" Alice said. "I swear, Yukihira-kun can be the worst kind of—"

Her phone vibrated next to her head, and she picked it up, grinning at it.

"Speak of the devil," Alice said. "Yukihira-kun wants to know if we're free tomorrow to come help him develop recipes."

"Oh?" Hisako asked. "You're on Yukihira's short list? When did that happen?"

"We worked together in Gotoda-senpai's challenge," Alice said. "He tried proposing to me after tasting our dish, but—"

"Wait, what?!" Hisako asked, her eyes going wide. "Yukihira proposed to you?"

Alice chuckled. "No, no. Gotoda-senpai did. But then Yukihira and I swapped places and it looked like he proposed to him instead."

"That must have been hilarious," Hisako said. "Any pictures?"

"I'll have to ask Isami-kun," she said. "If anyone had the foresight to record it, it'd be him."

"So how was it working with him?" Hisako asked.

"It was interesting," Alice said. "He let me take the lead on our dish, and once we had a plan it just seemed like any prep work I needed done was in my hand the moment I needed it."

"That doesn't surprise me," Hisako said. "I was at his transfer exam and got a peek at his file. He's been working as a support chef since he was six."

"Oh?" Alice asked, now very interested. "What did he serve you?"

"Furikake gohan," she said. "But it was somehow more than that. I've tasted haute cuisine for years by Erina's side, and this was something so different, so unique, that I don't thunk Erina quite knew how to handle it."

"So that's why he annoys her so much," Alice said. "Plebeian food that actually tasted good? Her brain would explode."

"Mm," Hisako agreed. "He was definitely well above expectation for a first year, and Senzaemon-sama was there with us, so Erina-sama probably felt pressured to pass him."

"That doesn't make any sense," Alice said. "If he was well above expectation, why wouldn't Erina pass him?"

"She probably took offense to what he served," Hisako said. "She's been tasting only haute cuisine for years. It was almost certainly a pride thing."

"I don't understand her sometimes," Alice said. "Is that why Yukihira annoys her so much?"

"Probably. Cognitive dissonance is a pain to deal with."

"Mou, Hisako, since when did you become a psychology expert?" Alice asked.

"Part of my training," she said. "Given what Azami did to her, it felt necessary to learn a bit of the basics."

Alice shivered. "Fair enough. That man is the stuff of nightmares."

Hisako changed the subject. "You went to the Polar Star party, right? How was it?"

"Oh! It was a lot of fun, actually," Alice said. "Ryo ran off to drink with his roommate from camp, and I got to taste some really yummy food and play strip poker."

"Alice!" Hisako said, as if it were a scandal. "Strip poker? Really?"

"Relax, Hisako," Alice said. "I only play when their hustler isn't, and I only lost my shirt last night. Nothing too inappropriate, I promise."

"They have a hustler?" Hisako asked.

"Well, one of them… Can't remember his name, is really, really good. It's like all he does is cooking and cards."

"You had me worried for a second," Hisako said. "You made it sound like he was a member of the Yakuza."

"Nah," Alice said. "The only Yakuza at Tootsuki is Eizan-senpai. Grandfather does incredibly thorough background checks."

"Fair enough," Hisako said. "Still, losing your shirt? I bet all the boys lost it at that."

"Not really," Alice said. "Most of them only ogled a little, though it's hard to tell with Isami-kun. His eyes are everywhere."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, he's real observant. The only other two I know by name were Isshiki-senpai and Yukihira, and Isshiki is masterful at averting his gaze from anything he shouldn't be looking at."

"What about Yukihira?" Hisako asked.

"He was too busy getting swarmed by the girls at his dorm to notice," Alice said.

"Is that disappointment I hear in your voice, Alice?" Hisako asked.

"Eh," Alice said, giving the idea some genuine thought. "He's cute, and always fun to be around. But… I just don't think there's anything for me there. As far as I'm aware, he's rejected everyone who's tried, and that's not a trivial number of girls. Besides, I have Ryo, and I'd rather use Yukihira elsewhere."

"Use?" Hisako asked, smiling. "Always the manipulator, eh?"

"I can't help it. It's just too fun," Alice said.

"Why don't we do this more often?" Hisako asked.

"Because Erina would flip if she found out we were actually friends," Alice said. "Plus, you never really get a day off."

"True," Hisako said. "I'm on a flight to join Erina-sama in Europe first thing tomorrow. The only reason she didn't need me today was that she needs to to take a day to sleep off her jet lag. I don't know what Erina-sama would do without me if I actually requested time off."

"She's a big girl," Alice said, putting the cucumber back. "She'll think of something."

Hisako took a deep breath, savoring the scent of the spa. "I hope so, Alice. I hope so."

A/N: So, this one's two weeks early. Hooray! Next one will essentially be a double chapter that goes from 0 to 100 real quick, and it'll get done when it gets done. Hope y'all enjoy it, and always feel free to leave a review. Stay safe and be well, folks.