A gaping Soma Yukihira stood unmoving in the middle of the hall as every student sprinted from the room as if chased by a horde of demons wanting to devour their souls. Huh? What the hell was going on? Weren't they supposed to be cooking the assigned dish?
Curiosity got the better of him as he grabbed a running student and—as luck would have it—it was the same guy who had rudely kicked him off from the chair after he had explained his humble origins. He would have loved to trash talk the loser but currently he needed the guy to tell him about this mad sprinting contest.
"Hey, why are you all running!?"
The petrified student jumped slightly and turned to Soma with his eyes widened in fear. "Y-you mean you don't k-know who she is!?"
"Nope."
Soma's eyebrow twitched in announce when his one-time attacker gave him a look that clearly said "are you an idiot?" So what if he didn't know who Erina Nakiri was? I mean it's not like it meant the end of the world!
"Erina Nakiri is known to have the finest palate known to mankind, a divine Tongue!"
"Huh?"
"Normal human babies begin to talk around the age of one or two, but her first words at three months old were 'Not enough depth of flavor'! Given the small glimpse of her genius already present at birth, she has been asked to be the taste tester of nation-wide famous restaurants since a very young age."
"All the heavyweights in the culinary world are her clients! Her evaluations spread far and wide in the industry! Should she brand you as an imbecile with no cooking talent…" Soma took a cautious step back when the terrified student shivered like a fragile leaf. "Your cooking career is gone forever!"
"Okaaaay."
Still not sure what the big deal was, the young Yukihira let go of the now desperately struggling teen and turned towards the examiner, taking sick pleasure from the fact that the sprinting teen tripped midway and got acquainted with the humble floor.
That should teach the rich brat not to mess with him!
His eyes widened to impossible proportion when he turned around and saw a scene so ridiculous, so preposterous that it left him devoid of the ability to think.
Standing near the gate of the hall was a tall and muscular blond dressed in a blood red T shirt, black leather pants and brown cowboy shoes. However, that's not what boggled him. It was the fact that the teenager was wearing red chest armor over his shirt and a few metal plates over his lower body parts.
What was even more ridiculous was the fact that he was carrying a long Japanese sword, eyes blazing as if ready to cleave the whole hall in half!
"Alright, where is my opponent? I am gonna pound his ass to dust!" Haru exclaimed passionately before he spotted Soma looking at him with dropped jaws. "You, cherry head, are you my miserable opponent?"
Soma snapped out of his stupor and scratched the back of his head. "Opponent? What opponent?"
"My opponent for ass kicking obviously!" Haru retorted indignantly. Was this guy an idiot? Didn't he know that this was an academy for Sword Fighting. "Where is your armor and sword?"
Soma didn't know whether this guy was being serious or just plain joking, but he knew one thing. The long sword was real and freaking sharp! "Hey look, this is a cooking academy, not Samurai-like sword fighting academy, ok."
"Seriously?" the blond asked in disappointment before narrowing his eyes in suspicion. "You are not pulling my leg, are you? Cause if you are, know that I've got a long sword and am not afraid to use it."
Eyebrows twitching at the threat, Soma composed himself and nodded quickly, realizing it was not wise to pick a fight with a sword carrying and armor-clad man. "I am not joking!"
Haru sighed in disappointment. So he was in the right Academy after all. That certainly explained why the running students hadn't returned yet. He thought the running was merely a drill to keep the students alert and to signal the start of the fighting matches!
After seeing them run off, he had sprinted after them, thinking they were securing the best armor and thus had found one in the hallways. Oddly enough, the armor was innocently placed along with other decorative vases and objects.
He would never figure out why they would place a metal armor in a hallway of all places. These people really had no concept of proper respect when it came to weapons.
He guessed the man—who had shouted at him for taking a decorative piece from the hallways—was also part of the drill. At least that's what he thought until the guy shouted for the guards and he had to knock him out with a slap to the neck.
The nerve of the guy to stop him from taking the armor!
Soma raised an eyebrow when the blond teen slumped to the ground and drew circles with the tip of the sword, a raincloud of depression hovering above his form. "Hey … umm… are you okay?"
What was with this guy? If someone was to judge him by his appearance alone, they would call him an intimidating brute but his current antics were anything but that. The way he was sitting on the marble floor, he looked like he didn't have a mean bone in his body.
"I am fine but my fragile ego is shattered to a million pieces!" Haru retorted, anime tears streaming down his face like a river. "Why can't I ever find a place where I can kick asses and take names like a normal teenager!? Life is so unfair!"
A sweat drop trailed down Soma's head as he listened to the blond sobbingly relate his misfortunes and curse his luck for not blessing him with an opportunity to "kick ass", as he put it. Something was seriously wrong with this guy!
"Well nothing I can do about it now." Haru declared cheerfully and turned to his fellow student. "The fact that you are not running with your tail between your legs, I can only assume that you are not afraid to face what sweet cheeks over can dish out at you, am I right."
Soma scratched the back of his head and laughed sheepishly. "What's the harm in simply testing my cooking skills? I mean it's only a single dish, I have faced worst!"
"That's the attitude, cherry head." Haru grinned and turned his attention to his voluptuous examiners, only to let out a perverted giggle upon seeing the scene. Erina and Hisako were engaged in an intimate conversation and dangerously close to each other, exotic flowers and plants singing songs of love around them as they descended into their own utopia.
"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"
Soma face-palmed when he heard the blond continuously giggle like an Elementary school girl and rub his hands together like a mad scientist ready to dissect his miserable victim as he gazed at the two examiners.
This guy is something else!
Judging from the way the two examiners were now glaring at Haru with their faces resembling fresh tomatoes, they had heard the mantra as well.
Feeling two piercing gazes drilling into his soul, Haru unnoticeably pocketed his trusty notepad—Soma wondered why he hadn't seen that in the first place—and cheerfully waved at the two girls.
"Don't mind us, cuties, you can go at it right there!" Haru began with a broad perverted grin. "Forget we are even here, right cherry head!?"
Research material in the middle of a cooking academy, it was like a dream come true! He wouldn't mind studying here for a few years!
"Don't get me involved in your perverted antics!" Soma retorted with a scowl, a subtle blush on his face. "and stop calling me Cherry head! My name is Soma Yukihira."
Feeling her face almost ready to burn from the heat, Erina clenched her fists and tried to compose herself. Standing behind her with her ears releasing steam like a steam engine, Hisako wasn't doing any better. In fact she seemed ready to collapse from embarrassment.
What are these two doing here? Don't they realize who I am?
Now that she thought about it, the first one was the same redhead who had picked a fight with a student just a few hours ago for insulting his origins. She had received a report along with a complaint regarding the redhead.
That smug and irresponsible attitude was not welcomed in Totsuki Academy. She would see to it that he fails and be expelled from the academy!
The second one…
Erina felt her face burn and her eyebrows twitch when she saw his smug visage, eyebrows wiggling up and down in a suggestive manner as he wrote something in his small notepad and giggled lewdly.
The tall blond gave the impression of a certified ruffian from his appearance alone, what with his skin tight T shirt, black leather pants, brown cowboy boots and all, but his antics suggested an entirely different scenario.
If she remembered correctly, then he was also the one who had shouted the "sweet cheeks" comment during the start of the test. With that alone, she had a bone to pick with him.
"So are you gonna do the nasty or not?" Haru asked hopefully. He could feel it already. Millions upon millions of cash streaming into his account from releasing his Icha Icha: Romance in Cooking Academy, Special Edition!
"NO!" Erina snapped, her face practically resembling a ripened tomato.
"Ok ok, sheesh!" Haru raised his hands in surrender. "It's not like I was the looking as though I was ready to get down and dirty in the middle of the freaking hall!"
Man, what a letdown! Guess Icha Icha: Romance in Cooking Academy and unlimited cash streaming into his account would have to wait.
"Enough about that!" the Nakiri heiress muttered through gritted teeth. "What are you two doing here?"
"Me?" Haru pointed at himself. "I am here to promote world peace."
The two girls and one boy blinked in surprise "Huh? What did you say?"
"I said I am here to take the exams, duh!" the blond retorted with a wide grin. "The fact that you didn't hear my words properly could only mean that you are still thinking about going at it, aren't you?"
Not able to take it any longer, Hisako stepped forward and stood between a furiously blushing Erina and a wildly grinning Haru. "Step away, do you even realize who you are talking to?"
"Your friend with benefits?" the blond Shinobi answered as he scratched the back of his head. That was the only tittle he could give them. I mean, they would have started going at it had he not interrupted them.
Whatever Hisako was trying to say, she instantly forgot about them when she heard his lewd accusation. What the hell was wrong with this guy? Everything with him was turned towards perverseness!