Ch. 116 Never Shy

Torrey took his time returning to class, choosing instead to enjoy a rare moment of peace inside the usually chaotic halls of Totsuki. No matter how long the passing periods were, it seemed that most students were always in a hurry to get to their next class, which sometimes meant having to traverse miles of campus grounds. The sheer amount of students meant that pushing and shoving occurred frequently within the hallways.

At this moment, however, Torrey was the lone student and he had the halls to himself. He noticed an open classroom door up ahead, and decided to peek his head inside.

"Again. But this time, follow the recipe exactly as it's written on the board," said an ornery old instructor. His brow was creased in frustration, his skin wrinkled from years of failing students just like the ones who were presently submitting their dishes.

"B-but we won't have enough time..." said one of the students, a doe-eyed girl on the verge of tears.

"Aye, that is a problem," said the instructor, nodding. "Next!"

Without even knowing the context of the assignment, Torrey was able to divide the class into three separate groups of students in various stages of distress.

The first group he noticed was the one presenting their dishes; a short line of students, none of whom looked particularly confident.

The members of the second group were dashing around the kitchen like madmen, getting in each other's way and causing even more confusion as they struggled to finish on time.

The last group was a sight for sore eyes; the students who had failed their task and had already given up on a second attempt. There was no hope for these students, and for some of them this would be their final assignment at Totsuki.

Suddenly aware of the negative energy emanating from the room, Torrey ducked out and continued his walk, this time with some food for thought.

Sometimes I forget how tough this school actually is. Those students were completely focused on their work and still couldn't manage the stress. Is it even possible to succeed here without 100% focus, 100% of the time?

Once again, Torrey was on the verge of an epiphany. An epiphany so profound, it had the potential to change the course of his story. As well as the stories of countless friends and culinary rivals. Before he could reach this epiphany, however, he bumped into one of those friends and lost his train of thought.

"Yooo, Kohai! Are you seriously ditchin' class right now?" said Rindo Kobayashi, seated on a bench with a breakfast sandwich in hand. Two sandwiches, actually.

Her usually long, scarlet hair was cut short, so that it didn't quite reach her shoulders. It was the same way that she had worn her hair in the past, long before reaching the 2nd seat and long before meeting Torrey. Only one of her amber eyes was visible, while the other remained hidden behind a lock of hair.

"Rindo-Senpai!" said Torrey, startled by the abrupt end to his ruminations. "I wasn't, I swear. And nice haircut."

"I know; I heard your name over the loudspeakers. I was just teasin' ya. And thanks," said Rindo, flashing a toothy grin. "So are you in trouble? Or was the Princess just trying to steal away her knight in shining armor?"

"Heh? Why does everyone assume that?" said Torrey, remembering that Alice had come to the same conclusion earlier.

"Cuz I'd be stealin' you away all the time if I was in her shoes!"

"Rindo-Senpai...I don't think you'd make a very good Dean."

"Bahahaha! Touche, Kohai. Touche."

"I wasn't in trouble or anything like that. At least, I don't think so..."

"You sound stumped."

"I've been banned from Casino Night. For reasons outside my control."

"Whaaat? That's bollocks," said Rindo. Torrey laughed, and assumed that Rindo had picked up the phrase from some past trip to Britain.

"I kinda get her reasoning, though. Erina thinks it'll be too distracting to have me there, and she needs everything to go smoothly for the sponsors and whatnot," said Torrey, thinking it over carefully.

"Distracting for who? For her?"

"I hadn't considered that. I figured she meant the other girls."

"Hmm...were you excited to go?" asked Rindo, taking a bite of a sandwich. The toasted English muffin gave a satisfying crunch, as a dallop of sauce flew out and landed on Torrey's white shirt. "Damn it, sorry Kohai."

Rindo tried wiping it with a napkin, but to no avail. She just smeared it even worse, likely staining the shirt. She frowned, but Torrey wasn't paying it any attention.

"I didn't even know what Casino Night was until Hisako told me," said Torrey.

"You haven't seen the flyers around campus? Look, there's one right there!" said Rindo, gesturing to a nearby bulletin board with one of the sandwiches.

"Apparently they sent out an email too."

"Ah, don't worry about that. I never check mine. And here I am, almost ready to graduate!"

"That's actually pretty reassuring," said Torrey, nodding. "You know, as serious as this place is...I really admire your approach to everything, Rindo-Senpai."

"Aww shucks, Kohai. What brought this on?"

"I was just thinking about how prestigious the school is, and how tough it is for us students, and the pressures that come with..."

"I see where you're going with this, but don't you dare say that I don't take things seriously!"

"I wasn't going to say that at all! You're like, the only one here who's struck the right balance between work and play. Take Tsukasa, for instance. He was the #1 seat, but he was also a nervous wreck every step of the way!"

"No mixed compliment this time? Hey, you just gave me an idea. Actually that's a lie; I was thinking about doing this a while ago."

"Uh...doing what, exactly?"

"Asking you to Casino Night, as my date!"

"You can do that?"

"Of course I can. This is one of the last big events before graduation, so third-years just get to sit back and enjoy the show. We have some crazier events coming up for us specifically, though. The only reason I didn't ask you sooner was because I didn't want to interfere with your education and stuff. But if you aren't participating as a student, you can hang with me and have a good time!"

"That sounds great, Rindo-Senpai, but what if it causes problems for Erina?"

"She'll just need to figure out a different solution then. I mean, think about it. She'll be dealing with your shenanigans for another 2+ years after this. She can't just hide you away anytime there's an event!"

"This is true."

"Plus, like I said. It's one of the last big events for us third-years. We might not have much more time to spend together..." said Rindo. She was laying it on a bit thick, but it wasn't like her to be overly dramatic. It spoke to the strength of her desire.

"All right, I'm sold."

"Aha! This was no chance meeting, Kohai. Casino Night is gonna be epic!"

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Ikumi Mito, Ryoko Sakaki, Yuki Yoshino, and Megumi Tadokoro sat around the poker table in the Polaris game room. Prior to sitting down, they had no choice other than to vacuum up the layer of dust that had settled atop the green felt. The ping-pong table was the much more popular choice when the students needed a distraction from cooking.

Cursing as the cards fell out of her hand and into a messy pile, Ikumi Mito smacked the table in frustration.

"Damn...if it wasn't hard enough to think up recipes, now we have to learn how to deal, too?" she said.

"I'm sure we'll get this part down with more practice. Learning the rules for all of the different games is going to be the real challenge," said Ryoko, who took a turn shuffling. The results were better than Ikumi's, and Ikumi rolled her eyes.

"Serving the food is what I'm nervous about," added Yuki. "I can be a bit of a klutz."

"Not as much of a klutz as me!" said Megumi.

"True; plus you've probably got the worst poker face out of anyone," said Yuki.

"That doesn't matter if you're the dealer," said Ryoko, sticking up for Megumi. "Though something concerning I heard is that some of our guests are wealthy students, from a prestigious school that has a reputation for gambling."

"So we can't just pretend like we know what we're doing...they'll be all over us," said Ikumi. She beckoned for the deck one more time, and failed again at her attempt to shuffle it. "Grrr."

"I understand the purpose of the cooking and the serving aspects of this event, but why do we have to deal too?" asked Megumi.

"Seems like a pretty typical Totsuki recipe to me. Impossible challenges, layered with impossible challenges, topped with even more impossible challenges," said Yuki. The other girls nodded in agreement, just as they heard the front door open.

"I'm home," said Soma.

"We're in the game room," yelled Yuki. Soma wandered in a few moments later.

"Where've you been, Yukihira?" asked Ikumi.

"Just had a last-minute Shokugeki with the Fried Rice Society. It was kind of a doozy," said Soma, shrugging.

"You mean you actually lost?!" asked Ryoko.

"No; it was a doozy for them. It was a unanimous decision, and I actually felt kind of bad beating them with their own specialty," said Soma. "Getting ready for Casino Night?" he asked, noticing their setup.

"Trying to, at least," mused Ryoko.

"Deal me in," said Soma, taking a seat. He fished around in his pockets for a moment, before procuring a bag of cool ranch Doritos. "We can use these for chips," he added.

"And get crumbs all over the table? Fumio-san will kill us!" said Megumi.

"There should be a real set around here somewhere," said Yuki, getting up to look around the room.

"I guess using the real thing would be best," said Soma. "We'll need some practice calculating chip totals in a hurry."

"Yukihira...have you seen Torrey?" asked Ikumi.

"Not since third period. He told me something interesting though," said Soma.

"Why doesn't he confide in us more?" asked Ryoko.

"Probably because most of his issues involve you girls. But anyways, he told me that Nakiri told him that he can't come to Casino Night."

"What? How come?" asked Megumi, very concerned.

"I couldn't get it out of him."

"Did he mention anything else? Anything that might be an important clue?" asked Ikumi.

"Well, he did say that...no, nevermind. It's nothing," said Soma. He was staring vacantly across the room, acutely aware of the girls staring at him. He started whistling.

"Just tell us, already! You can't just come in here dropping vague hints like that!" said Yuki, grabbing Soma by the collar and giving him a good shakedown.

"I really shouldn't say. Remember when I accidentally spilled the beans about his date with Alice? Look where that got us. If it weren't for that, Waldy would probably be joining us at Casino Night and..."

The girls were all grinning, a sure sign of his mistake.

"Aha. So it's our fault," said Megumi, whose elation was quickly spoiled by this realization.

"Damn it, I hate it when you do that," said Soma. "Guess that's what he gets for trusting me with secrets, though! Ahaha."

"You're kind of a crappy friend, Yukihira," said Yuki, contorting her face in disgust.

"No way; you always twist my words and get me to say stuff that I shouldn't!" protested Soma.

"Where's Torrey right now, anyway?" asked Ryoko.

"Ha! I can't get in trouble for this one. Cuz I don't know..." said Soma.

*****************************************************************************************

"Erina-sama! Erina-sama!" said Hisako, barging into Erina's office with a huge stack of papers. It was getting late, and they were nearly ready to call it quits for the day. Their work was never complete; it was always just a question of how much they could afford to put off for the next day.

"What is it, Hisako? You know it stresses me out when you say my name like that," said Erina.

"Sorry, but this is of the utmost importance. It's about Torrey! Or rather, school policy. Let's see..." said Hisako, pausing to flip through the pages. "Since Casino Night is an officially sanctioned Totsuki event, on par with such events as the Friendship and Rapport Training Camp and the Stagiare..."

"Sigh...I see the issue already. Torrey can't be excused from participating. It was a hasty solution, on my part," said Erina, who'd given a lot of thought to this situation, even after Torrey had left her office earlier.

"Precisely, though if you look here at paragraph 24, subsection 8C... 'a student may be exempt from an officially sanctioned event due to severe medical needs OR if he/she is presented with an alternative challenge of equal rigor'."

"Hisako, that's it! But what constitutes 'severe'? A severe allergic reaction, perhaps? I'm told that he's allergic to crab, so if we could just get him to..."

"Erina-sama, I was referring to the alternative challenge!"

"Naturally," said Erina, nodding as if she had reached the same conclusion.

Erina-sama's so transparent, and she can never get her thoughts together when it comes to Torrey, thought Hisako.

"Our problem now is to design a challenge of 'equal rigor'. Casino Night is already a very demanding event, and the students will be assisting each other with their duties. As far as an individual assignment for Torrey, it will be hard to replicate such difficulty," said Hisako.

"Sounds like quite the dilemma," said Rindo, who'd wandered in without being detected.

"Gah! Rindo-Senpai?!" said Erina.

"When did you arrive?" said Hisako, eyeing her suspiciously. "I don't recall issuing a summons..."

"Hahaha, if you actually summoned me then I definitely wouldn't be here right now. I go where I please; you know that," said Rindo, giving Hisako a playful slap on the back. "I sure hope you aren't thinking of making my precious Kohai work the event after all. He was so distraught when he found out that he isn't welcome there..."

"H-he was?" said Erina, worried.

"Absolutely. Don't sweat it, though- Rindo-Senpai found a way to cheer him up!" said Rindo, jabbing herself confidently with a thumb.

"It wasn't anything lewd, was it?" asked Erina, jumping to conclusions.

"Wouldn't you like to know," said Rindo, licking her lips.

"Please address your Director with more respect!" said Hisako.

"I got plenty of respect for our esteemed Director here- but only as a fellow chef. Still kinda pissed she made me retake PE this semester, but at least Kohai's in my class. Guess it all worked out in the end," said Rindo, shrugging. "Oh yeah, almost forgot. The point I was gonna make is that I don't respect her as a rival lover!"

"W-what does that have to do with anything?" said Erina, who had been flustered enough by Rindo's appearance before she started rambling about Torrey.

"Cuz that's how I cheered him up- by inviting him to Casino Night. As my d-a-t-e," said Rindo, dragging out the sounds and waiting for this to sink in. It took a moment.

"T-truly? I suppose it's well within your rights as a third-year student..." said Erina.

"Erina-sama, you can't be thinking of actually allowing this?" said Hisako.

"I was the one who made the mistake, Hisako. Not Rindo-Senpai. Besides, the 'alternative challenge' is our best bet anyway, at this point in time. Very well. I hope you find the event to your liking," said Erina, unable to meet Rindo's eyes.

"Same here. Though I'd try to avoid me and Kohai, if I were you. It might make him uncomfortable; you know, since you didn't want him there in the first place," said Rindo, waving a hand over her shoulder on her way out the door. "Later."

Erina and Hisako stood there for a moment, in complete silence. Finally, Erina spoke.

"Hisako..."

"Yes, Erina-sama?"

"I need a cup of tea."

"At once!"