"Chocolate banana crepes, here you go," Eda set the plate before the pink-haired boy, who spluttered, flabbergasted.

"You just told me I shouldn't eat dessert for breakfast!" Shinomiya argued, "and why is it chocolate again? You trying to pick a fight??"

Eda hummed to himself, reaching to make another crepe with the leftover batter, ignoring the pink-haired boy completely.

"Here you go, Shinomiya-kun," Sekimori put the cup of tea on the table, beside the crepe, "enjoy your meal."

"Y- Yessir!"

Shinomiya let it set that all of a sudden, he was getting served some sugary breakfast. What's this situation?

"Here's your portion, Eda-kun," Sekimori put another cup on the table, "could I have a crepe, too?"

"Thanks, Sekimori-senpai," Eda responded, flipping the crepe in the pan. "I'm making this one for you. You might want to make yourself a cup while you're waiting."

Shinomiya took a bite out of the crepe, only to recoil.

"It's bitter!" he complained, "dark chocolate?!"

"You're supposed to take large bites out of a crepe, not nibble the corner," Eda turned around exasperated. "Just drink some tea."

Shinomiya grumbled moodily as he drank some of his goddamn tea.

Then he just sparkled.

"It's really good tea," he said, and Sekimori gave a thumbs up. Shinomiya glared at the crepe for another moment-- then he ate another bite.

Then he screamed.

A whole bunch of seniors ran toward the kitchen, only to find Shinomiya crying on the table, Sekimori enjoying a... is that a crepe? And Eda is poised like he's fending off a demon possession, two ladles before him in a cross.

"Uhm, what's going on?"

-

"Chocolate and green tea are always a match made in heaven," one of the seniors explained, after getting a rundown of the situation. "Is Shinomiya dead?"

"Yeah, he apparently just hates admitting anything I make is delicious," Eda explains, wiping down the crockery and returning them to their rightful shelves.

"I mean, you did pour caramel sauce all over his crepe," Sekimori laughs a little, "it was overkill. You could probably win a Shokugeki with your level of skill, you know?"

"A Shokugeki, huh..." Eda considered. "You exaggerate. It's nothing much, I just threw the dish together with what was available."

"You could've thrown together a simple pancake instead."

"But then it would conflict with your tea, wouldn't it?"

There's a moment of silence. The seniors stared at the boy, surprised by what they'd heard. Eda himself didn't seem to notice. He cleaned up the workspace, and sat down to finally enjoy his tea.

"Even with as little ingredients as you did, you tried to accommodate the accompanying beverage," Sekimori said, and he sounded quite exasperated, "why?"

Eda looked up, not really understanding the question.

"Because the choice of tea would really affect the taste of the sweets," he said, and he sounded like he's had to explain this many times, "I wouldn't want to ruin the flavour of your tea, Sekimori-senpai."

Eda didn't really understand why they kept looking at him like he'd grown another head.

Then Shinomiya burst to life, roaring something among the lines of 'fuck this' and began wolfing down his food.

Eda smirked victoriously. "So it's delicious, huh?"

"I'll acknowledge you just this once," Shinomiya growled at him, grinding his teeth and sneering, "only because it's a dessert, okay?"

"Bow down and sing my praises, you pink-haired sore loser."

"Oh you're a cheeky bastard when you aren't hiding under a desk, you pipsqueak!"

"Hey that was uncalled for!"

-

They went to see Sekimori-senpai's Shokugeki after that.

His opponent was the President of the Japanese Cuisine Research Society or something, and they were having a Shokugeki over a sushi machine. Some latest model technology, apparently, and Sekimori really wanted it.

"Basically the seniors didn't want to share so now they're fighting?" Eda repeated the explanation to Shinomiya, and the boy nodded.

"His opponent is a third-year, and they've been at odds for a while on who's the better sushi master." There was Shiomi-senpai, adding her own input, "Sekimori-kun has more experience despite being younger... well, just watch."

Shinomiya stood at the front, but Eda stayed curled in his seat, content to watch from where he was. Shiomi was the only one sitting normally, because everyone else was cheering bloody murder behind them.

"Go kill them dead, Sekimori!!"

"Cook that damn fish like a master!"

"Dude, this is a sushi contest."

Eda hoped that the people staring wouldn't start throwing toilet paper at them for being noisy... he hugged his knees closer. They're not going to, right?

"A little before you came in, when Jouichirou-senpai was around... we would have Shokugeki like these too, and we got most of what we have in the dorms today from there, including land." Shiomi fiddled with her fingers, speaking only to Eda.

Eda turned to her curiously. She had curled into her seat too, trying to make herself smaller in case people started throwing things at them.

"We had a lot more connections back then, but we've lost most of it after he left, so now we've got too many people and too little facilities to accommodate everyone."

Eda blinked. Speaking of which, they seemed to have a lot of customized workshops, but they're not all big enough to share, especially sensitive ingredients like spices. Maybe Polar Star was never meant to have a large residency.

Is that why the dorm entrance test was so strict?

(Does that mean that, if I want a dessert workshop, I can get one if I win against someone with money?)

"So Sekimori-kun is trying his best to get us more supplies with his own help," Shiomi smiled, "I'm glad that I'll leave behind good, dependable juniors."

And Eda couldn't help but smile back at that.

-

Sekimori won, of course, it was a total shutout.

Eda sat there, jaw on the floor.

Their dishes shone in the light, and even from the crowd, he could hear the salivating figures craving for just a bite, just a bite.

What sort of magic could reverberate from a dish, so widely the crowd could taste it with their eyes? Eda never thought it was possible until today.

It wasn't the aroma, or maybe it was.

Eda couldn't smell a thing, couldn't begin to imagine how any of it would taste-- yet, he found himself envious of the judges that were able to enjoy such a masterfully put-together dish, and satiated their senses with the flavour of that perfection on a plate.

It made him miss his own senses, not for the first time.

-

They got themselves a sushi machine, and as a celebration, they had sushi for dinner.

Everyone fawned over the delicately cut sushi as Sekimori and another senior had a sashimi battle on the counter. There were people plating themselves a Kaisen-don, and there was a bunch stewing up some miso soup for the crowd.

Eda observed the scene with interest, admiring their knife skills.

"You're not gonna grab some sushi?" Shinomiya asked him.

"It's a war zone over there, I think I can wait," Eda chuckled, "but look, Shinomiya. Sekimori-senpai has his own knife for sushi, and so does the other senpai."

"Sushi knives are delicate, after all," Shinomiya responded. He grimaced at the sight of the seniors in the distance, clambering over each other for sushi even though there was plenty to go around.

Eda tapped his fingers on his arm, thrumming a scale like a piano.

Ah-- he was no longer restricted to the bakery, was he? He could go further than the civilian dishes he had to make at home. It's just like what Fumio told him on his first day-- they aren't looking for dishes you can get in just any store around.

They're looking for the extraordinary, dishes that sock you in the gut with the understanding that this is gourmet, this is luxury, this is a different world.

Here, Eda could go the extra mile, and really, truly, aim for the height his past self reached.

Here, Eda could really fly-- and it's taken him a painfully long while to realize it. Maybe today's Shokugeki was just that amazing. He wanted to make a dish like that one too, just to be a part of the magic.

(Surely, here, he could do it.)

(Surely.)