Chapter 24: School Festival
After many Shokugekis, Soma was now at Erina's mansion as the man was in the middle of playing chess with her.
"Checkmate," Soma said as he moved his knight to a spot that cornered Erina's king.
Erina looks with a frustrated face as she tried to find a way to get her king out of the corner but could not as Soma positioned his pieces to corner her.
"Looks like I win," Soma said with a grin as this marks his 25th win in a row against her
"Kuuh! Card games!" Erina exclaimed as she takes out so many card games
"Fine by me," Soma said as they started playing more card games with each other.
The two best friends played around for a couple of hours before Hisako came into the room.
"I made some tea," Hisako said as she entered the room with a tray of tea and snacks.
"Oh, thank you, Hisako," Erina said as she had defeated Soma in poker, the man in the background seems frustrated as the man only had 3s and 5s.
"Man, I always get a bad hand," Soma said while crossing his arms.
"Excuses like the usual," Erina said with a smile before taking a sip of tea.
"Hmph, you're just happy that you only won poker this first time," Soma said with a smirk as sparks were flying between the two.
"Do you want me to defeat you again to make this an official?" Erina asked with a smirk as Soma replied with a grin
"Fine by me, princess," Soma said as their hands locked into a thumb wrestling match.
As the two battled off with their minds, Hisako broke it by coughing.
"As much as I like to let the two of you play around," Hisako said catching their attention, "it's time for the Momiji meet and greet."
"Momiji meet and greet?" Soma said in confusion before he yelped in surprise as Erina did a surprise attack and locked his thumb in a lock, making her the winner
Soma and Erina took a seat side by side as they were accompanied by the rest of the final of participants of the Autumn Selection match.
"Yukihira!" Takumi shouted at Soma "What's with your hair, you grew it out all lazily!"
"I guess it did," Soma said while rubbing his hair, "guess focusing on the Stagiaire too much made me forgot all about it."
"You are a chef and a chef has to be able to take care of his appearance!" Takumi nagged at the man who just looks at the falling leaves
"Maybe I should get a hair cut once in a while," Soma said
"you should but don't get it cut too short," Erina said to the man, "it feels more natural for your hair to be sharp."
"Is that a compliment, Erina~?" Soma asked with a teasing grin
"W-what if it is!? And call me Nakiri when we're in public, stupid!" Erina stammered at the man
'Everyone is going around so well,' Megumi thought but in reality, Ryo and Akira were glaring at each other, Alice was making fun at Hisako, Takumi was barking at Mimasaka, and Soma was teasing Erina who keeps blushing
"Oh yeah, how come you're seated with us, Erina? You're a member of the elite ten, right?" Soma asked her
"The goal of this ceremony is to deepen the relationship between the first years and the upperclassmen, so I belong on this side," Erina replied, "and call me Nakiri here, stupid!"
"We're finally meeting the upper-class." Megumi hummed, "I wonder what they're like."
The gong went off to signal the arrival of the upper-class
There they were, nine people, the members of the Elite Ten.
The other nine took their seats across from us, the air had a certain tenseness to it.
Ninth Seat, Eizan Etsuya, Second Year High school
Eight Seat, Kuga Terunori, Second Year High school
Seventh Seat, Isshiki Satoshi, Second Year High school
Sixth Seat, Kinokuni Nene, Second Year High school
Fifth Seat, Sato Somei, Third Year High school
Fourth Seat, Akanegakubo Momo, Third Year High school
Third Seat, Megishimia Tosuke, Third Year High school
Second Seat, Kobayashi Rindo, Third Year High school
First Seat, Tsukasa Eishi, Third Year High school
"Hey, hey guess what," Kuga said seat while looking at Soma. "Why don't we end this crap now and never do it again? It's meaningless and boring, so let's not do it next year!"
Everyone looks to him as they were surprised by his words.
"Hey braid girl what do you think?" Kuga asked looking to Megumi
"Umm…I Uhh…" Megumi stuttered out in nervousness.
"This is an invitation from the director." Kinokuni Nene said while adjusting her glasses, "you can't just participate."
"I was asking the braids girl on their side," Kuga said
"You're noisy." She sighed.
"Jeez, what's with your attitude?!" Kuga-senpai laughed "Are you on your period or something?"
"Drop dead," Nene said
"The one with the annoying voice is here again," Eizan smirked at his contemporary.
"All you care about is money!" Kuga shouted "Just drop out, like right now, One, Two…Thr-."
"Shut up Midget," Eizan said as Kuga instantly snapped
"AHH!" Kuga roared out
"Well doesn't everyone look vibrant today." Satoshi said, "now let's raise our glasses and have a toast."
"Why should we listen to you, Isshiki?!" Eizan and Kuga snapped at him
"Oh gosh. Forget our first years, they get along 800 times worse than we do!" Megumi looks scared as the second years were nagging at each other, well except for Isshiki
"Excuse me…" Soma called out while raising his hand as everyone's attention was to him, "I want to enter the Elite Ten now, any of you wanna have a Shokugeki with me?"
"No," Kuga and the others answered in an instant.
"We don't have time to face Freshmen." Kuga told him "Seriously don't be stupid."
"It's not like we don't have our problems." Kuga added in "The second years are busy trying to take down the people in front of us."
"Well, why don't we have some tea?" Tsukasa suggested.
"So that's the first seat, huh?" Soma said while looking at Tsukasa Eishi who was drinking his tea
"Yukihira Soma…Takumi Aldini…and Mimasaka Subaru." Tsukasa called out as he looks at them
"I would have preferred you not have a Shokugeki during the Autumn Election." Tsukasa said in a depressing aura around him "I had to work extra hard to make sure the Election was perfect and you guys made my paperwork so much harder. being the First Seat is so troublesome. I've got so many responsibilities."
"Senpai you need to get your act together," Nene said to the man
"You know Yukihira-chin you've been here for about a half year now right?" Kuga asked as Soma nodded "It's about time you understand just how serious the Elite Ten is."
"Well, you don't have to bet your seat I just want to fight strong people," Soma said.
"You don't get it~!" Kuga groaned. "You don't understand the weight. a match with us isn't some joke, we're different from the norm. Being in the Elite Ten means you own the Authority and Assets."
"Huh?" Soma said in confusion
"For the sake of cooking we are allowed as much of the budget as we need, ingredients, facilities, and tools you could only dream of seeing, books that would cost millions of Yen at an auction, you can do anything so long as it relates to your studies," Kuga explained
"In this school cooking is everything." Isshiki said, "Which means that the higher you go the more power you have."
"Humans live short lives." Tsukasa said "But cooking lasts forever, even if you dedicated your whole life to it you'd never master it…however if you are in the Elite Ten, you can shorten the steps to the Mecca. We are the ones with power, the ones who receive authority. It is a fact that there is a difference in power between the Elite and the rest."
"Yeah, that's pretty much it." Kuga nodded "You're not even worth considering as an opponent so why don't you just squabble with each other?"
"How about this." Kuga looked at Soma "If there's a type of cooking you're better at then me I'll take you on, but that'll never happen."
"Height," Nene muttered out
"I SAID IN COOKING, YOU FOUR EYED TROLL!" Kuga roared at the girl
"Are you serious Senpai?" Soma asked.
"Sure." He shrugged "if that's it can we finish up?"
"See ya later~" Kuga hummed walking off with the rest.
"I see," Soma said before his lips turned into a smirk
'That's his 'I want to have a Shokugeki with them' face!' Megumi thought in a panic.
After being dismissed from the meeting with the Elite Ten, everyone went to their separate ways as some had classes to take
Soma, Erina, and Hisako were walking down the lane filled with trees on the sidelines as they were going to class by car while the others had other things to do.
"Man, I wanted to have a Shokugeki with them," Soma said while folding his hands behind his head.
"Having a Shokugeki with an Elite Ten member must be a condition set to match," Hisako explained to him, "you have to offer them something big if you want to have a challenge."
"My expulsion?" Soma thinks as it was the only thing, he had been betting for every single Shokugeki, he had ever had.
"Just that won't suffice," Erina replied as they reached to the parking lot where the driver was waiting for them, "remember what Kuga-senpai told you, something that you have better than him"
"something better? My height, right?" Soma said with a grin as Erina sighs to his answer.
Kuga who was in the middle of his cook-room suddenly felt annoyed and pissed for some reason.
"Even if you did have something better than him, all the Elite Ten will have their hands full because of the Festival," Erina said as they got into the car as it gets out of the parking space
"What Festival?" Soma asked confused
"The Totsuki Institute School Festival," Hisako explained, "once every year, Totsuki's institute allows members of a research club to set up a booth and each booth can be in a group or an individual work."
"The Festival is an event that attracts a million visitors every year," Erina told the man while crossing her arms, "if one fails to make big sales, that booth's staff is expelled in an instant."
Soma nodded in understanding as he rubs his chin before an idea popped into his head.
"That's it!" Soma exclaimed standing up
GA-KING!
But his head instantly hits the roof of the car and a big red bulge appeared on the top of his head
"Why did you even stand up in a car?" Erina asked with a sweatdrop as Hisako applied a band-aid on Soma's bulge.
"Got an idea on how to beat Kuga-senpai!" Soma said with a grin.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone