Chapter 1 –

Tamako Yukihira smiled at their beautiful baby daughter, Mitsuko Saiba, a perfect mixture of both words with her dark auburn wavy hair with golden orbs "Aren't you just precious~" cooing at their baby girl

"She is…" Joichirou smiled she was the apple of their eyes

Few weeks later "She's going to need heart surgery…" the doctor gives the new young couple the bad news "Do you both have any history? Perhaps testing will help us…"

"We'll do the test." Tamako said, squeezing Joichirou's hand with worry

Few weeks spent in the incubator "Let's go home." Joichirou smiled with some relief

"Right…" Tamako smiled softly, finding out she had the same problem with Mitsuko which the doctors quickly solved the problem

As the waiting elevator opened "Joichirou?!" "Gin?" Joichirou was shocked

"…What are you doing here?"

"Here for a regular checkup…you?" Gin asks

Telling him about his wife and daughter "Man, what a coincident?!" laughed at the irony

His vein popped with anger "The hell it's a coincidence! You didn't even write! I've been so worried you might just die in a ditch somewhere!" sighing with relief "It's really been a while, Joichirou…"

Wrapping his arm around his shoulders "Anyway, we should celebrate our reunion later! Let's go drinking!"

"I have work! And you have a wife and daughter to take care of"

"It's okay, we'll wait till you finish with your checkup and take you to our place!" brightly chimes, remember their old days

Twitching in great annoyance "That's not how it works!"

Tamako burst into laughter "It's a pleasure to finally meet you." Smiled with muse as she greeted her husband's friend

Gin looked down at the woman in the wheelchair, holding a bundle of joy, he smiled warmly "Pleasure is all mine…" giving his compliments for her bravery to marry his irresponsible friend.

(3 years later)

Mitsuko grinned brightly as she wore a lavender apron with bunny prints her mother made for her "Me, cheffy!"

"Eh?" Joichirou laughed at his adorable daughter "Well then, why don't you come here and help me out as a sous chef?" lifts her up on the stool

Then a year later at Mitsuko's pre-school "She's amazing on the piano!" the teacher exclaims from shock as she also taught piano and violin on the side "Her ear is amazing!"

With Mitsuko holding Liszt piano etude book her pre-school teacher played "Me, play piano too!" as this book was her goal

Tamako smiled softly and sighed "We'll start with 30 mins per week…" wanting to see if their daughter really wanted this

"Of course! She can come here an hour early here for an hour lesson and hour late just before she goes home…" she saw so much potential that her parents couldn't see now, but knew Mitsuko was going to be the greatest pianist and was willing to teach for free.

(2 years later)

"I'm going to play the violin!" Mitsuko smiled brightly as she found another passion

Hikari, her music teacher smiled as she brought Mitsuko home "She can keep the violin…my children are all grown and no longer uses the violin."

"Violin, eh?" Joichirou was happy for his daughter's passion as it was a good fit with her heart condition, he didn't want her to strain too much

(10 years later)

Mitsuko smiled as she came out of the sweet shop after helping her friendly neighbor granny to make some sweets for her shop while her son was sick "Thank you, Baa-chan!"

"You're welcome, sweetie. Tell you parents, I said hi!" she chuckled as she went off to her family diner

While lending a hand at her friend's family coffee and bakery shop "eh?" she laughed at Aki's joke

Few hours later "Kaa-chan, I'm home!" grinning ear-to-ear

"Mimi-chan!" making her groan with customers laughing "Hahaha, how did it go?" she smiled

"Great!" She smiled, rushing upstairs to set her things down "I'm going to meet up with Hikari-sensei to practice for the concours!"

"Hahaha, Kazusato, you're lucky that your granddaughter took after her father! Your diner is saved!" one of the regulars cheers with others

"Well, Okama-chan really mellowed down completely after Mitsu-chan was born…that, her skill in vegetarian and medicinal cuisine is the best in the world…" Kiyo chuckled softly

"I'm a great chef! You tell them, Tou-san!" Tamako defends her cooking due to having a daughter with health condition that she had to practice and study the most in the two fields.

"Well, you are good now with how much you studied…still, compared to your husband…you're a bit of a lackluster." One of her former schoolmates laughed

"You guys are impossible!" huffed in annoyance before smiling as Mitsuko went out the door "Call us when you're done!"

"I will!" she laughed as she agreed with Kiyo-baa making the customers laugh more

With the weeks passing by to her concours "Eh?" she froze from shock "Why is our concours here, sensei?"

Hikari sighed "They changed it up at the last minute and why? I don't know…" follows the employee to their area

Mitsuko rubbed her neck as she did know her father's former school "Hmm? Oji-chan?"

The tall man turned and smiled "Mitsu…Hikari-sensei, how are you?" greeting the two warmly

"We're doing good…" Hikari smiled and saw a lot of students "Is something going on?"

"Oh…just 2nd years prepping for next year…" Gin smiled

Looking at her uncle with some annoyance "You planned this, didn't you?"

"No, it wasn't me…the headmaster wanted musicians to be our guests…your concours just happened to be one coincidence…" Gin gave an all knowing smile at his goddaughter "Why don't you go follow my staff. She'll lead you guys to your room…"

"(Sigh) Great…" She sighed at the pain

After settling down, Mitsuko changed into a red sequin sleeveless halter flowing dress as she kept her front locks pinned to the side with rose jeweled pins "How do I look?" Smiled at her teacher

"Beautiful." She smiled warmly as they went downstairs to get ready for the concours

The news of Chef Doujima Gin chatting with a girl who called him oji-chan spread like wildfire "That's her!" "Who is she?" "I'm so curious…but she seems to be competing in the concours…" "She's beautiful…" "Wonder how she knows Chef Doujima…" students whispered amongst themselves

"Please welcome to the 68th National Japan Violin Concours!" the announcer smiled brightly, while apologizing for the last-minute change to their location.

Mitsuko closed her eyes as she heard everyone play, taking deep breaths as she was the last competitor "Mmhh…Let's make something beautiful…" whispers to herself as she went on stage with her violin, noticed her uncle and other Totsuki students in the audience

The announcer nods at Mitsuko "Mitsuko Saiba…performing Ravel Tzigane with a piano accompaniment…and Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 9 'Kreutzer'…and final piece Bach from Partita for Violin No. 2 'Chaconne'" getting many applauses as almost new her famous name of being the strongest opponent to many violin students reaching for the top

Flipping her long locks back "mmhh…" smiled at her teacher and they began to play

"…" everyone perked up "Woah…" "Huuahh…" even Totsuki could hear the huge difference between her performance to other competitors

"It's…different." Even a certain snowy white hair and eyed student whispers to himself 'It's absolutely beautiful…' seeing the beautiful colors Saiba was capable of producing unlike other violinists that stood on the same stage

Mitsuko smiled as she won the concours beautifully "Congratulations, Mitsuko." Gin smiled, taking his goddaughter and her teacher to a special hall "Enjoy the meal made by Totsuki's students…"

"Eh?" She was surprised and looked at him with a look

"(Chuckles) Don't worry…" Asking them to just make a note of what they thought of each dish for the students and a grade.

With each student assigned to a table, he was surprised to be chosen to serve Saiba's table as nobody wanted the table as they feared of failing the test as the girl sent many low grades regarding their dish while her teacher wave above average remarks 'She must have had some fine-dining food…'

Mitsuko tucked into her food and perked up as the flavors on her palate was different 'How interesting…' she looked at the beautifully plated food, closes her eyes to taste the food seeing he didn't put his personality into the dish but focused solely in the ingredients in itself 'yet something is still missing from this dish…it feels…empty.'

As the server took their last course away, they took the note to hand it over to Director Doujima "I see." He nodded at their note, heading into the kitchen with a calm 1st seat of the Elite Ten "Hikaru-sensei gave her a perfect score…"

"Of course, they did…" the other students sighed as they struggled to please the table

Gin turned serious "Mitsuko Saiba, gave you a C." shocking the boy who has never had anyone give him a poor score "She said your style is good…but the dish itself feels empty and lackluster of the Chef's passion to please his customer…She said from all the dish she tasted around the world, yours was…terrible."

"Terrible?" shocked to the core and annoyed by her comment as he read the note himself which was extremely blunt and straightforward "Why did she pass me?!"

"Line 14." Points to the section she wrote down

"That I had Potential?" Eishi twitched his brow, not knowing whether to be happy there was a customer who didn't like his dish or be offended they didn't like his dish after complimenting it "How do you know her, Chef Doujima?"

Doujima chuckled at the students "She's my goddaughter." Glanced back at the students who froze in shock as he left the kitchen with Sena

With Mitsuko completing her middle school and starting high school in April, the concours had gotten her invited to numerous venues and concerts from famous maestros around the world during her winter break "Welcome back, Mimi-chan!" "You're back Mitsu-chan!" regulars cheerfully greeted her as she came back from a long three months of traveling and performing all around the world.

"Thanks!" Mitsuko smiled brightly

Later that evening after Mitsuko shutting up the businesswoman to leave the town "I enrolled you to Totsuki Academy." Joichirou said, handing her the admission papers "The headmaster there is a friend of mine and agreed to let you travel to perform in concerts during your school year and come here on weekends for your lessons."

"That is the most stupidest decision you have ever made." Mitsuko bluntly refused to go, making her mother laugh who tells her father she told him so "Why do I have to go?!" crosses her arms

"I think you will find this place really interesting, Mitsuko-chan…" He smiled with great faith she will love the school.

She frowned as she didn't understand it "Fine…this is only a test run." She couldn't believe Hikari-sensei betrayed her.

Ruffling her hair "How about a cooking challenge?" Joichirou smiles brightly at his daughter.