Waifu Wars: A Food Wars Fanfic

Ch. 59 The Man in Black

            "Hmmm...so THAT'S what you're making? How cute," said Alice, leaning against the counter in Torrey's workspace. Looking very amused, her sharp red eyes were following his movements carefully.

"Hey Doc, I'm flattered, but shouldn't you be watching your little experiment? It'd be tragic if a chemical reaction were to blow up the entire arena or something," countered Torrey.

From the corner of his eye, he glanced at Alice's area, which had various test tubes and beakers filled with colorful liquids lying about. Several of them were giving off suspicious looking smoke clouds.

"Oh, Torrey. It's too bad that I wasn't able to teach you more in my class. You showed a lot of promise in molecular gastronomy, but with this dish...I'll show you just how far the gap between us is!"

"Haha. Some people might find your excessive confidence to be off-putting, maybe even irritating. But I think it suits you. It's one of your most attractive qualities," said Torrey, winking at Alice before returning his attention to his dish.

"...wait, did you just? No...no way. You're teasing me!" said Alice, struggling for words before pointing aggressively at Torrey.

"I'm doing no such thing."

"Then it's like, a diversionary tactic...to throw me off my game! Pfft, I see right through your phony attempt!" said Alice, storming off back toward her kitchen.

While Torrey filled a baking dish with a mix of brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup, he continued glancing over at Alice. Her confidence was clearly shaken; she was pacing around her area awkwardly, picking things up and then putting them right back. When she combined two of the colorful liquids into a tube, she didn't get the reaction she was hoping for, and the contents fizzed up before exploding over the counter.

Megumi, who was working in the space next to Alice, jumped back in alarm.

"EEK!"

Torrey laughed, taking a moment to enjoy the sight of a flustered Alice before getting back to his dish. He topped the mix with pecans, small pieces of bread, and thinly sliced apples. Then he whisked together a new mix of eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, salt and nutmeg. Once this was poured over the dish, he set it into the blast chiller.

Typically, this recipe would need to refrigerate overnight, but thanks to Totsuki's cutting-edge equipment, Torrey could easily finish it within an hour. While waiting for it to chill, he looked over at Alice again. She was staring right at him.

"So...do you like, actually think I'm attractive?" she said, after an excessively long moment of eye contact.

"Definitely. Who wouldn't?"

Bdump Bdump. For perhaps the first time since Torrey had met her, Alice was speechless.

Although the Shokugeki Arena's kitchen space was large enough to accommodate all 14 students competing in the mock battles, they didn't have a whole lot of room to work with, and there were times where paths would cross or utensils would have to be shared.

Ryoko, who was the one working closest to Torrey, grabbed a large saucepan and moved as if to carry it to the stove. She bumped into Torrey, smacking the pan hard against his elbow. 

"YAOOO!" screamed Torrey. "My funny bone!"

"Oh my goodness! I'm so, so sorry, Torrey! I just got caught up in the heat of the competition..." said Ryoko. She was on the verge of tears, so it was impossible for Torrey to be mad at her.