Waifu Wars: A Food Wars Fanfic

Ch. 74 Advancement Exams: Stage Three (Wrap-Up)

(Author's Note: There isn't a whole lot of original content in this chapter, but it's a very important development in the real story so I figured I'd keep things pretty accurate while trying to incorporate Torrey. I hate waiting two weeks to post chapters, but I've been really busy lately.)

            The day of Stage Three, shortly before Torrey's match...

            "Miss Erina...you pass Stage Three!" said Endo, the proctor who had also overseen the Stage Two Exam. "That was most excellently done, Miss! Most excellently done, indeed!"

            Because of her family name, Erina had gotten used to excessive praise and poorly concealed attempts at flattery while growing up. The old Erina even encouraged it; but she'd changed a lot over the course of the past school year. She no longer had the time to spare for such shallow pleasantries.

            "Out of my way," she said.

            Removing her hair tie as she barged past Endo and out of the exam room, Erina sped through the halls, with her lengthy, honey-blonde locks trailing behind her. She was looking, perhaps for the first time in her life, for Soma Yukihira. Knowing that his exam would have ended by now, she was desperate to learn the results.

            Once she found the room that was assigned to Soma and Akira Hayama, she flung the door open and hurried in.

            "Yukihira! You...you passed...right?" said Erina, her face flushed from the hallway sprint.

            "Sure did! I somehow scraped my way to vindication in the end," said Soma, relaxed as ever. Hayama, sitting at the table nearby, also looked surprisingly calm for someone who'd just suffered defeat.

            "Oh! Erina Nakiri. Hello," said Jun Shiomi, Hayama's bespectacled spice mentor. She was sitting with Hayama at the table.

            Although Jun Shiomi was the Totsuki instructor formerly in charge of the Shiomi Seminar, she could have easily passed as a student in the middle-school section of Totsuki. She was short, cute, and seemed to have an endless supply of 'SPICE' t-shirts

            "You run all the way over here, Nakiri? Your hair's looking a little crazy," said Soma, teasing her with a grin.   

            Erina was taken aback. She glanced up and quickly tried to straighten her hair, blushing the entire time.

            "A-anyway! Since I decided you were all advancing to your second year with me, of course I would rush to check," said Erina. "Even you, Hayama. And I hope you have learned your lesson and will cease supporting Central and its foolish policies at once!"

            "Yeah, Hayama! What's wrong with just quitting? Can't you tell Central to shove it and return to being a student like the rest of us? Unless you're getting blackmailed like Waldenpond..." said Soma.

            Just then, the door opened. KCHAK.

            "Perhaps I should be the one to explain. Pardon the interruption," said the Central suit who just entered the room. "I'm Sir Azami's personal assistant, Sean Aida."        

            Dressed sharply in a suit, and with dark, pointy eyebrows, Sean Aida definitely looked like a bad guy.

            "Akira Hayama, you understand, correct?" said Aida.

            "Yeah, I do," said Hayama.

            "In accordance with the rules of this exam...Akira Hayama, you are hereby expelled."