Waifu Wars: A Food Wars Fanfic

Ch. 110 The Nose Knows

            Later that day, Torrey is greeted immediately by Soma and Ikumi when he steps foot into his third period classroom.

"Yo, Waldy!" says Soma. "We missed you at lunch today."

"Hey, Torrey..." says Ikumi, fidgeting uncomfortably.

"Hey guys. Sorry, I had to stop by Erina's office and it ended up taking longer than I thought it would," says Torrey, grabbing the empty seat at their table.

"Did you get in trouble again? Two trips in one week is pushin' it," Soma teases, unaware that being in 'trouble' had just been a convenient pretext for Erina to summon them to her office several days before.

"Unless he just wanted to spend some time together with Erina-sama..." says Ikumi, thinking out loud.

"What?! Uh...I guess that's not entirely untrue," says Torrey, while he scratches the back of his neck. "Anyways..." he continues, trying to change the subject. Soma doesn't let him.

"Hey that's fine and all, but could you at least consider my perspective the next time you decide to ditch the group? When you aren't around, the conversation's always 'Torrey this' and 'Torrey that' and 'I wonder what kind of girl Torrey would go for'. Bleh!" says Soma, sticking his tongue out in disgust. This earns him a solid punch in the arm from Ikumi.

"Soma!" she growls.

"Seriously, though. Don't leave me hangin'," Soma reiterates.

"Haha, my bad," says Torrey, sheepishly.

Jun Shiomi finally enters the classroom, wearing her usual SPICE t-shirt with an unbuttoned lab coat over it. She takes her place at the front of the room, and waits for the students to end their side conversations.

I wonder if she has enough of those shirts to get through the week. Maybe she just does laundry every night, thinks Torrey. Then he remembers how forgetful she is. Maybe she doesn't do laundry at all...

As the room quiets down, a tall, white-haired man with a ponytail enters carrying a crate full of ingredients. His sharp green eyes contrast with the navy blue of his Totsuki winter uniform. The plain white t-shirt underneath is unbuttoned at the top, and the standard red tie hangs loosely from his neck.

"After that little mixup last week with the ingredients, I realized that I needed some extra help around the classroom, tehe," says Jun, performing the typical cutesy-anime head bonk.

"You think?" shouts a student in the back.

"I had to murder an innocent animal!" shouts another.

"I took a s**t in the woods!"

"It wasn't all that bad..." mutters Ikumi, remembering how she was carried around campus by Torrey after injuring her ankle.

"Now, now. Settle down. It won't happen again, because starting today, we have Elite Ten member and Autumn Selection champion Akira Hayama at our disposal!" says Jun, clapping excitedly. Hayama sets the crate down by the pantry, and sighs.

"Please don't dispose of me," he adds.

"Hayama-kun has already been a tremendous help to the Shiomi Seminar, but now he's going to be officially earning some credits as a teacher's assistant. Most of you already know who he is, thanks to his impressive track record and unrivalled knowledge of aromatics, but..."