Ch. 123 Casino Night, Part Seven: 99 Problems, But a Shrimp Ain't One

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To say that Soma Yukihira had a signature skill, or a signature dish, would be doing him a disservice. He excelled in every aspect of the culinary arts, and if these aspects were converted to Olympic events, Soma's competitive nature would allow him to contend for every last medal. From efficiency, to knife work, to plating, Soma could truly do it all. These skills had been lying dormant on Casino Night, repressed under the scrutinizing eye of his temporary captain Eizan. If anything, Soma's signature trait was that in every situation, no matter the stakes, he was his own captain. Which probably accounted for his stubborn refusal to pivot away from the squid legs, even after their initial failure. One does not simply tell Soma Yukihira to do or not do something, as Eizan had attempted. As his friend and dorm-mate, Torrey knew that the best way to snap Soma out of his funk was to challenge him directly in the kitchen.

Back to the topic of Soma's knife work- it was so quick and precise, that a casual onlooker might fail to even determine what was being cut. As a whirling dervish of ingredients landed on his cutting board, Soma produced perfectly minced portions of tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, and jalapenos. These all went into another large mixing bowl, along with ketchup, lime juice, cilantro, and hot sauce. Another skill of Soma's was on display now, which was his ability to seamlessly incorporate out-of-the-box ingredients into his recipes. This time, it was spicy V-8 tomato juice. Once he mixed everything up, Soma chopped the cooked shrimp into bite size pieces, added it to the cocktail sauce, and placed the bowl inside the blast chiller to speed up the cooling process.

By now, Torrey had finished grilling his first batch of skewers, and was shouting to the kitchen staff to get his appetizers out ASAP. He had a challenge to win against a friend, after all. Takumi appeared almost immediately, and his jaw dropped to the floor.

"What...what's going on here?" he stuttered.

"You'd better get the rest of your servers in here," said Rindo. "And make sure they keep track of the plates, too. Whoever serves more..."

Rindo didn't need to finish her sentence; Takumi grasped the situation and darted back into the main hall to grab his remaining staff. When they returned to the kitchen, Torrey had already finished plating several dozen gochujang shrimp skewers. The blast chiller worked miracles on Soma's shrimp, and he too was able to plate the first round of cocktails seconds after Torrey. The only words spoken for the next twenty minutes or so were "Order up!", anytime Soma or Torrey finished another set of plates.

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There were two reasons why both Torrey and Soma had stopped cooking at precisely the twenty-minute mark. First, they had run out of shrimp. It wasn't that Totsuki was out of shrimp; they likely could have ventured out to one of the adjacent halls and easily found some. But the second reason for their stoppage had also prohibited them from leaving the hall. As per the rules of Casino Night, Soma's shift in the kitchen ended at that time.

Eizan had returned at the twenty-minute mark to inform Soma of this, but he wasn't alone. Tagging along was the Director of Totsuki herself, Erina Nakiri, and her aide Hisako Arato. Erina, renowned not just for her God's Tongue and her skills in the kitchen, but also for her beauty and poise, somehow managed to appear composed. Looking closely at her delicate features, as Torrey had done on many occasions, however, he detected a slight furrow to her brow. It was almost imperceptible.

"Why do I always find myself having to deal with the aftermath of one of your ridiculous schemes, Yukihira?" she finally managed, doing away with her composed persona.

"Hey! Normally you'd have a point there, but this was all Waldenpond's idea!"

"Is this true?" said Erina, locking eyes with Torrey. He nearly buckled under the weight of her sharp, violet gaze, and his fear was odd, since the last time he had spoken with her she had been the one who was flustered and uncomfortable. It never ceased to amaze him how quickly she could flip the switch, to go from a love-struck maiden to the Director of the world's most prestigious culinary academy.

          

"Yeah," he admitted. "Eizan didn't mention that?"

Torrey looked at Eizan, but Eizan was looking down at his own feet, oddly demure.

"His words were something along the lines of 'Quick, you'd better come and see this!' It's not often that I have the pleasure of seeing him so worried, so I refrained from asking questions and simply followed him here."

"Ah. Well, if you think about it, this is technically the aftermath of one of Soma's ridiculous ideas. If he hadn't insisted on serving such terrible appetizers, I wouldn't have felt the need to challenge him in the first place!" said Torrey.

"Rindo-Senpai didn't think they were terrible! And she said that you tried one too!" said Soma, attempting to defend his honor as a chef.

"Those squid legs weren't bad, Yukihira. Not bad at all," said Rindo, flashing a thumbs up.

"For the record, I once heard her say that Shirako wasn't bad either," said Torrey.

"Kohai! You were supposed to keep that a secret. I'm still waiting to try YOUR Shirako, anyways," said Rindo, blushing, oddly enough.

"This conversation is already off the rails. All I've managed to gather is that Yukihira chose squid legs as his appetizer, didn't serve many, and that Torrey challenged him in an effort to increase his motivation and thus allow him to meet the requirements for the challenge. Is that correct?" said Erina, glancing between both Torrey and Soma for confirmation. They both nodded.

"Wow, that's the Director for you," said Rindo.

"Hisako, can you read us the fine print under the Casino Night guidelines? This situation is certainly unusual, but not out of the question. There must be something in there that will allow us to make sense of all this," said Erina, with a sigh.

"Certainly, Miss Erina! I was able to scan through a good portion of it on the way here. Let's see...ah, yes. Page 1178, paragraph 7, subsection C, if I recall. He-hem. In the event that...no, that's not quite right," said Hisako, flipping a few more pages. "Here we are! If a first-year student fails to...no, no that won't do either. Hmm."

Everyone waited as Hisako flipped forward, then back, then forward again through the large manual she carried with her. Several minutes passed, and still nothing. Soma and Torrey both started cleaning up their cooking areas. Erina watched them work with mild interest, and Eizan went back to the main hall to direct his staff. Rindo, noticing that they really didn't have any shrimp left to cook, followed Eizan to the main hall with the intention of grabbing a serving of each of their appetizers. She didn't want to skew the results of the competition, of course. Finally, Hisako spoke.

"This is it, I'm absolutely sure of it this time! Okay, it says...no more than two chefs are allowed in the kitchen. One may be the sous chef, but the head chef is responsible for choosing the dish served and any plates served during this time will be attributed to the head chef only. In the event of an emergency, if a sous chef is not available from the head chef's team, an alternate chef may be named. This sounds like a bit of a grey area...but as long as Soma and Torrey were the only chefs in the kitchen, we might be able to work around it. Miss Erina, would this situation constitute an emergency? I leave the decision to your divine judgment!" said Hisako, kneeling before Erina.

"Please stand, Hisako. Considering that the first seat of Totsuki was at risk of being expelled," said Erina, pausing to glare at Soma for a moment, "I'd say this was an emergency. The real question is if Yukihira managed to serve enough dishes to pass the requirement. Since he didn't technically choose the dish that Torrey served, I don't believe we are able to count Torrey's dishes towards Soma's total."

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